The difference between Illegal and Irregular
When used as nouns, illegal means an illegal act or technique, whereas irregular means a soldier who is not a member of an official military force and, often, does not follow regular army tactics.
When used as adjectives, illegal means contrary to or forbidden by law, especially criminal law, whereas irregular means nonstandard.
check bellow for the other definitions of Illegal and Irregular
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Illegal as an adjective:
Contrary to or forbidden by law, especially criminal law.
Examples:
"This is illegal, you know!"
"Nearly 40 million people live in UK areas with illegal air pollution"
"their illegal mining operations in Asia, Africa and elsewhere, are protected by officials and police paid to look the other way – and powerful customers in the construction industry who prefer not to ask too many questions."
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Illegal as an adjective:
Forbidden by established rules.
Examples:
"Moving a pawn backward is an illegal move in chess."
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Illegal as an adjective (philately, of an [[issue]] printed for collectors):
Totally fictitious, and often issued on behalf of a non-existent territory or country.
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Illegal as an adjective (of a person, sometimes, _, offensive):
Being or doing something illegally.
Examples:
"'illegal immigrant; illegal logger; illegal pilot"
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Illegal as an adjective (chiefly, US, sometimes, offensive):
Being an illegal immigrant; residing in a country illegally.
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Illegal as a noun (obsolete):
An illegal act or technique.
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Illegal as a noun (colloquial, plural, as '''''[[illegals]]'''''):
Contraband, esp. illegal substances such as drugs.
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Illegal as a noun (colloquial, offensive):
An illegal immigrant.
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Illegal as a noun (espionage):
A spy working abroad illegally and undercover, without visible ties to his or her country's authorities.
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Irregular as an adjective:
nonstandard; not conforming to rules or expectations
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Irregular as an adjective:
rough
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Irregular as an adjective:
without symmetry, regularity, or uniformity
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Irregular as an adjective (geometry, of a [[polygon]]):
not regular; having sides that are not equal or angles that are not equal
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Irregular as an adjective (geometry, of a [[polyhedron]]):
whose faces are not all regular polygons (or are not equally inclined to each other)
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Irregular as an adjective (grammar, of a word):
not following the regular or expected patterns of inflection in a given language
Examples:
"Calves", "cacti", and "children" are irregular plurals."
"I hate learning all the irregular conjugations in French."
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Irregular as a noun:
a soldier who is not a member of an official military force and, often, does not follow regular army tactics
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Irregular as a noun:
one who does not regularly attend a venue