| / English Dictionary |
LEGITIMATE
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Authorized, sanctioned by, or in accordance with law
Example:
a legitimate government
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Similar:
legal (established by or founded upon law or official or accepted rules)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Of marriages and offspring; recognized as lawful
Classified under:
Similar:
lawfully-begotten (born in wedlock; enjoying full filial rights)
left-handed; morganatic ((of marriages) of a marriage between one of royal or noble birth and one of lower rank; valid but with the understanding that the rank of the inferior remains unchanged and offspring do not succeed to titles or property of the superior)
lawful; rightful; true (having a legally established claim)
Also:
authorised; authorized (endowed with authority)
legal (established by or founded upon law or official or accepted rules)
valid (well grounded in logic or truth or having legal force)
Antonym:
illegitimate (of marriages and offspring; not recognized as lawful)
Sense 3
Meaning:
In accordance with recognized or accepted standards or principles
Example:
legitimate advertising practices
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
constituted; established (brought about or set up or accepted; especially long established)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Based on known statements or events or conditions
Example:
rain was a logical expectation, given the time of year
Synonyms:
legitimate; logical
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
valid (well grounded in logic or truth or having legal force)
II. (verb)
Verb forms
Present simple: I / you / we / they legitimate ... he / she / it legitimates
Past simple: legitimated
Past participle: legitimated
-ing form: legitimating
Sense 1
Meaning:
Make (an illegitimate child) legitimate; declare the legitimacy of (someone)
Example:
They legitimized their natural child
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Hypernyms (to "legitimate" is one way to...):
alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s somebody
Derivation:
legitimation (the act of rendering a person legitimate)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Show or affirm to be just and legitimate
Classified under:
Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing
Hypernyms (to "legitimate" is one way to...):
justify; vindicate (show to be right by providing justification or proof)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s something
Derivation:
legitimation (the act of making lawful)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Make legal
Example:
Marijuana should be legalized
Synonyms:
decriminalise; decriminalize; legalise; legalize; legitimate; legitimatise; legitimatize; legitimise; legitimize
Classified under:
Verbs of political and social activities and events
Hypernyms (to "legitimate" is one way to...):
allow; countenance; let; permit (consent to, give permission)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "legitimate"):
monetise; monetize (give legal value to or establish as the legal tender of a country)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s something
Derivation:
legitimacy (lawfulness by virtue of being authorized or in accordance with law)
legitimation (the act of making lawful)
Context examples:
The attack involved targeting Dyn's domain name system servers with a large volume of requests, rendering it incapable of serving replies to legitimate requests — a DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack.
(Distributed malware attacks Dyn DNS, takes down websites in US, Wikinews)
Above all, he hated my young legitimate heir from the first with a persistent hatred.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
My father, indeed, imposed the determination, but since his death, I have not a legitimate obstacle to contend with; some affairs settled, a successor for Morton provided, an entanglement or two of the feelings broken through or cut asunder—a last conflict with human weakness, in which I know I shall overcome, because I have vowed that I will overcome—and I leave Europe for the East.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Under the temporary pressure of pecuniary liabilities, contracted with a view to their immediate liquidation, but remaining unliquidated through a combination of circumstances, I have been under the necessity of assuming a garb from which my natural instincts recoil—I allude to spectacles—and possessing myself of a cognomen, to which I can establish no legitimate pretensions.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
He did not like the laziness and the disinclination for sober, legitimate work of this prospective son-in-law of his, for whose ideas he had no respect and of whose nature he had no understanding.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
This is legitimate, et j'y tiens, as Adele would say; and it is by virtue of this superiority, and this alone, that I desire you to have the goodness to talk to me a little now, and divert my thoughts, which are galled with dwelling on one point—cankering as a rusty nail.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
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