violates

Violates is the third-person singular present tense of the verb violate. The verb violate has several senses centered on transgression or harm: to break a law, rule, or agreement; to infringe upon rights or privacy; or to desecrate, spoil, or disrespect something considered binding or sacred. In common usage, it often conveys a breach of established norms or duties.

The word comes from Latin violare, meaning to injure, wrong, or offend, and entered English through Old French. In modern English, violate remains a strong term for deliberate noncompliance or harmful intrusion, and it can describe actions ranging from legal violations to violations of personal boundaries or expectations.

Grammatically, violate is transitive and requires an object. Typical constructions include: violates a law or regulation; violates terms of service; violates someone’s rights; violates privacy; violates protocol. The grammatical forms include violates (present), violated (past), and violating (present participle). The corresponding noun form is violation, and plural violations is common in legal and policy contexts.

In legal and policy language, more precise terms such as breach, infringe, or trespass may be used depending on the context. Breach often refers to failure to meet contractual obligations; infringe denotes encroachment on rights or intellectual property; trespass can describe unlawful entry onto property. Nevertheless, violate and its noun violation remain widely used to describe improper, unlawful, or unethical actions that contravene established rules, norms, or rights.

Usage notes: a statement that someone/ something violates a rule carries a sense of active wrongdoing or disregard for boundaries and can apply to physical, digital, or moral domains.