illegally

«illegally» in Mova's school dictionary: against the law — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 2 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

adverb

meaning for a pupil

Illegally means in a way that is against the law. tree →

sense in the lessons

In news, citizenship lessons and stories, it tells the reader someone broke a law, such as parking illegally, downloading films illegally or selling goods illegally. Phrases: «parked illegally», «illegally downloaded», «entered illegally», «illegally dumped».

examples

• The car was parked illegally on the zigzag lines outside school. tree →
• Films downloaded illegally can carry viruses. tree →
• The rubbish was dumped illegally in the woods. tree →
• The man was fishing illegally without a licence. tree →
• It is against the rules, but is it done illegally? tree →
• They illegally sold fireworks to children. tree →

note

Adverb from «illegal» + -ly; il- (not) + legal. Spelling: two l's at the start (iLLegaLLy) and two at the end. Do not confuse with «ill» (sick). «Against the rules» at school is not always «illegal» (against the law of the country).

In the corpora

• In graffiti slang, bombing means spraying lots of tags quickly, usually illegally; it has nothing to do with real bombs.
• Many lorises are caught illegally for the pet trade and have their teeth pulled out; all lorises are protected by international law.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «illegally» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.