legal age
nounDefinition of legal age
: the age at which a person enters into full adult legal rights and responsibilities (as of making contracts or wills)
Examples of legal age in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Florida also raised the legal age of buying a gun from 18 to 21. — Washington Post, "Texas relaxed gun laws after recent mass shootings," 8 Aug. 2019 Momentum is growing for a nationwide movement to raise the legal age of tobacco purchase from 18 to 21. — Jamie Ducharme, Time, "A Flurry of States Have Raised Their Smoking Ages. But Big Tobacco's Involvement Has Some Health Groups Uneasy," 10 June 2019 The legal age for a child to stay at home unsupervised in Illinois is 14. — Lateshia Beachum, Washington Post, "Video appears to show police entering a home without a warrant and choking a teen," 27 Aug. 2019 Local officials also have moved to regulate vaping products through tax increases or raising the legal age to buy such products. — Jessica Seaman, The Denver Post, "Health officials confirm first case of vaping-related lung illness in Colorado," 22 Aug. 2019 Nothing on the order of turning 16 years old and a driver’s license, 18 and the right to vote, 21 and the legal age to purchase alcohol. — Vanessa Hua, SFChronicle.com, "Riding shotgun and other milestones," 15 Aug. 2019 The legal age for purchasing cigarettes, e-cigarettes and other tobacco products goes up from 18 to 21 statewide. — Chicago Tribune Staff, chicagotribune.com, "Daywatch: Tax increases and new laws, women increasingly caught in Chicago violence and other things to know to start your day," 1 July 2019 Illinois signed similar legislation in May. States where the legal age is already 21 include Hawaii, California, New Jersey, Oregon, Maine and Massachusetts. — Amir Vera, CNN, "Texas governor signs law increasing the age to buy tobacco products to 21," 8 June 2019 The legal age is already 21 in states including California, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Utah, and Vermont among others. — Andrew Hirschfeld, Fortune, "As States Like Texas Move to Ban Tobacco Sales To Anyone Under 21, Retailers are Adapting Too," 1 Sep. 2018These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'legal age.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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More Definitions for legal age
legal age
noun
le·gal age
| \ ˈlē-gəl-
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Medical Definition of legal age
: the age at which a person enters into full adult legal rights and responsibilities (as of making contracts or wills)
legal age
nounLegal Definition of legal age
: an age at which a person becomes entitled under the law to engage in a particular activity or becomes responsible for particular acts
the legal age for drinking in this state
broadly
: age of majority — compare age of consent, emancipate