---
title: "BIP39 Word #1020: legal — Seed Phrase Mnemonic Word"
url: "https://bip39-phrase.com/bip39-word/legal/"
language: "en"
updated: "2026-10-19T00:00:00+00:00"
---

Word #1020 01111111011 

# legal — BIP39 word #1020

"**legal**" is word #1020 of the 2048 words in the official BIP39 English wordlist, between [leg](/bip39-word/leg/) and [legend](/bip39-word/legend/). In a seed phrase it stands for the 11-bit value `01111111011`, decimal index 1019\. 

/ˈliːgəl/  · _adjective:_ allowed by law, or relating to the law 

[Russian](/ru/ "The BIP39 wordlist with Russian translations"): законный 

## Binary Representation

Nine 1-bits and two 0-bits; 55 of the 2048 indexes have exactly nine 1-bits.

One wrong bit turns it into (leftmost bit first):

[youth](/bip39-word/youth/)[disorder](/bip39-word/disorder/)[garage](/bip39-word/garage/)[hunt](/bip39-word/hunt/)[jazz](/bip39-word/jazz/)[kiwi](/bip39-word/kiwi/)[latin](/bip39-word/latin/)[lazy](/bip39-word/lazy/)[lend](/bip39-word/lend/)[left](/bip39-word/left/)[leg](/bip39-word/leg/) 

Position

Hex Index

0x3FB

4-Letter Prefix

lega

## About "legal" in BIP39

- "legal" has 5 letters, but the first four, **"lega"**, already identify it, because **"leg"** also begins [leg](/bip39-word/leg/) and [legend](/bip39-word/legend/).
- Its first letters also spell another BIP39 word, [leg](/bip39-word/leg/). Write "legal" out in full: cut short, it turns into a different valid word.
- **"lega"** is unique only within the English list: it also begins legale in the [Italian list](/italian/) and legado in the [Portuguese list](/portuguese/), so a four-letter backup should say which list it uses.
- "legal" appears in three of the 24 official English [test vectors](https://github.com/trezor/python-mnemonic/blob/master/vectors.json) of BIP39: vectors #2 (words 1 and 9 of 12), #6 (words 1, 9 and 17 of 18) and #10 (words 1, 9 and 17 of 24). Every official vector passes the [checksum checker](/bip39-checksum-checker/), and [How BIP39 works](/how-bip39-works/) shows how the entropy turns into such words.

Official test vector #2

legal [winner](/bip39-word/winner/) [thank](/bip39-word/thank/) [year](/bip39-word/year/) [wave](/bip39-word/wave/) [sausage](/bip39-word/sausage/) [worth](/bip39-word/worth/) [useful](/bip39-word/useful/) legal [winner](/bip39-word/winner/) [thank](/bip39-word/thank/) [yellow](/bip39-word/yellow/) 

## Word #1020 in the Other 9 BIP39 Wordlists

[Czech](/czech/) obrazec 

[French](/french/) implorer 

[Italian](/italian/) mimosa 

[Japanese](/japanese/) そつう 

[Korean](/korean/) 실장 

[Portuguese](/portuguese/) imitador 

[Spanish](/spanish/) ligero 

[Traditional Chinese](/chinese-traditional/) 槍 

[Simplified Chinese](/chinese-simplified/) 枪 

## Similar Words — Check Carefully During Recovery

Read aloud, "legal" /ˈliːgəl/ is one sound away from these 2 words: 

[eagle /ˈiːɡᵊl/](/bip39-word/eagle/)[illegal /ɪˈliːgəl/](/bip39-word/illegal/) 

Words sharing the first three letters "leg":

[leg](/bip39-word/leg/)[legend](/bip39-word/legend/) 

## More BIP39 Words Starting with "L"

[ #1016 leave ](/bip39-word/leave/)[ #1017 lecture ](/bip39-word/lecture/)[ #1018 left ](/bip39-word/left/)[ #1019 leg ](/bip39-word/leg/)[ #1021 legend ](/bip39-word/legend/)[ #1022 leisure ](/bip39-word/leisure/)[ #1023 lemon ](/bip39-word/lemon/)[ #1024 lend ](/bip39-word/lend/) 

[View all words starting with "L" ](/bip39-words/l/) 

## Seed phrase, key and recovery guides

- [Bitcoin Core Seed Phrase: Why There Is None and How to Back Up](/bitcoin-core-seed-phrase-backup-guide/)
- [BIP38 Encrypted Private Keys: 6P Format and How to Decrypt](/bip38/)
- [BIP39 Passphrase: How the 25th Word Creates a Hidden Wallet](/bip39-passphrase/)

[ Full BIP39 Wordlist ](/)