The status of being born to parents who were not married.

synonyms: bar sinister, bastardy.

Roget 925: undueness etc. adj.; malum prohibitum [Lat.]; impropriety; illegality etc. 964.    falseness etc. adj.; emptiness of title, invalidity of title; illegitimacy.    loss of right, disfranchisement, forfeiture.    usurpation, tort, violation, breach, encroachment, presumption, assumption, seizure; stretch, exaction, imposition, lion's share.    usurper, pretender.    ... show more

Roget 964: lawlessness; illicitness; breach of law, violation of law, infraction of the law; disobedience etc. 742; unconformity etc. 83.    arbitrariness etc. adj.; antinomy, violence, brute force, despotism, outlawry.    mob law, lynch law, club law, Lydford law, martial law, drumhead law; coup d'etat [Fr.]; le droit du plus fort [Fr.]; argumentum baculinum [Lat.].    illegality, informality, unlawfulness, illegitimacy, bar sinister.    trover and conversion [Law]; smuggling, poaching; simony.    [person who violates the law] outlaw, bad man etc. 949.    v.. offend against the law; violate the law, infringe the law, break the law; set the law at defiance, ride roughshod over, drive a coach and six through a statute; ignore the law, make the law a dead letter, take the law into one's own hands.    smuggle, run, poach.    ... show more

Unlawfulness by virtue of not being authorized by or in accordance with law.