The Collaborative International Dictionary
Lawful \Law"ful\, a.
Conformable to law; allowed by law; legitimate; competent.
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Constituted or authorized by law; rightful; as, the lawful owner of lands.
Lawful age, the age when the law recognizes one's right of independent action; majority; -- generally the age of twenty-one years. Also called legal age or age of majority.
Note: In some of the States, and for some purposes, a woman attains lawful age at eighteen.
--Abbott.Syn: Legal; constitutional; allowable; regular; rightful.
Usage: Lawful, Legal. Lawful means conformable to the principle, spirit, or essence of the law, and is applicable to moral as well as juridical law. Legal means conformable to the letter or rules of the law as it is administered in the courts; conformable to juridical law. Legal is often used as antithetical to equitable, but lawful is seldom used in that sense. -- Law"ful*ly, adv. -- Law"ful*ness, n.
Wiktionary
n. (context legal English) The age at which the rights and privileges of an adult are legally granted or recognized; i.e.; the age where a child ceases to be a child legally and becomes a legal adult.
Wikipedia
The age of majority is the threshold of adulthood as recognized or declared in law. It is the moment when minors cease to be considered children and assume legal control over their persons, actions, and decisions, thus terminating the control and legal responsibilities of their parents or guardian over them. Most countries set majority at 18. The word majority here refers to having greater years and being of full age as opposed to minority, the state of being a minor. The law in a given jurisdiction may not actually use the term "age of majority". The term typically refers to a collection of laws bestowing the status of adulthood. The age of majority does not necessarily correspond to the mental or physical maturity of an individual.
Age of majority should not be confused with the age of sexual consent, marriageable age, school leaving age, drinking age, driving age, voting age, smoking age, etc., which each may be independent of, and sometimes set at a different age from the age of majority.
Although a person may attain the age of majority in a particular jurisdiction, they may still be subject to age-based restrictions regarding matters such as the right to vote or stand for elective office, act as a judge, and many others.
Usage examples of "age of majority".
It might still have come to nothing in the end (although Honor suspected that Lord Owens might have gotten a most unpleasant shock, steadholder or no, when his daughter turned twenty-two, the legal age of majority on Grayson) if not for Honor's own capture and supposed execution.
She was tall, lithe, and just past her two-hundred-and-fiftieth moon, the age of majority.
Kiku, that sets the age of majority at thirteen-a capricious and arbitrary figure, as I'm sure you'll agree.
That much of the story was told to every member of the royal family as soon as they reached the age of majority, but there was more, passed only from royal magician to royal magician and told only to the ruling monarch since the founding of the kingdom.
It might still have come to nothing in the end (although Honor suspected that Lord Owens might have gotten a most unpleasant shock, steadholder or no, when his daughter turned twenty-two, the legal age of majority on Grayson) if not for Honor’.