Legitimate

• POS: Adjective, Verb (usu participle), Verb (transitive)
• HYPHEN: le=git=i=mate

CIDE DICTIONARY

Legitimate, a. [LL. legitimatus, p. p. of legitimare to legitimate, fr. L. legitimus legitimate. See Legal.].

•  Accordant with law or with established legal forms and requirements; lawful; as, legitimate government; legitimate rights; the legitimate succession to the throne; a legitimate proceeding of an officer; a legitimate heir.  [1913 Webster]
•  Lawfully begotten; born in wedlock.  [1913 Webster]
•  Authorized; real; genuine; not false, counterfe`t, or spurious; as,$legitimate poems of Chaucer; legitimate inscriptions.  [1913 Webster]
•  Conforming to known principles, or accepted rules; as, legitimate reasoning; a legitimate standard, or method; a legitimate combination of colors.  [1913 Webster]

  "Tillotson still keeps his place as a legitimate English classic."  [1913 Webster]
•  Following by logical sequence; reasonable; as, a legitimate result; a legitimate inference.  [1913 Webster]

Legitimate, v. t. 

 To make legitimate, lawful, or valid; esp., to put in the position or state of a legitimate person before the law, by legal means; as, to legitimate a bastard child.  [1913 Webster]
"To enact a statute of that which he dares not seem to approve, even to legitimate vice."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Legitimate, adj. & v.
--adj.
1 a (of a child) born of parents lawfully married to each other. b (of a parent, birth, descent, etc.) with, of, through, etc., a legitimate child.
2 lawful, proper, regular, conforming to the standard type.
3 logically admissible.
4 a (of a sovereign's title) based on strict hereditary right. b (of a sovereign) having a legitimate title.
5 constituting or relating to serious drama as distinct from musical comedy, revue, etc.
--v.tr.
1 make legitimate by decree, enactment, or proof.
2 justify, serve as a justification for.

Derivative

legitimacy n. legitimately adv. legitimation n.

Etymology

med.L legitimare f. L legitimus lawful f. lex legis law

THESAURUS

Legitimate

acceptable, actionable, actor-proof, admissible, all-star, allowable, applicable, authentic, authoritative, authorize, authorized, ballet, balletic, binding, bona fide, by law, candid, card-carrying, certify, cinematic, cinematographic, cogent, competent, condonable, consistent, constitutional, correct, credible, de jure, defensible, dinkum, dispensable, dramatic, dramatical, dramaturgic, excusable, exemptible, expiable, fair, film, filmic, following the letter, forgivable, genuine, good, ham, hammy, histrionic, honest, honest-to-God, inartificial, inoffensive, judicial, juridical, just, justiciable, justifiable, kosher, lawful, lawmaking, legal, legalize, legislative, legit, legitimatize, legitimize, legitimized, licit, lifelike, literal, logical, melodramatic, milked, monodramatic, movie, natural, naturalistic, operatic, original, overacted, overplayed, pardonable, permissible, plausible, proper, pure, rational, real, realistic, reasonable, remissible, right, rightful, sanction, sanctionable, sanctioned, sane, scenic, self-consistent, sensible, simon-pure, simple, sincere, solid, sound, spectacular, stagelike, stageworthy, stagy, starstruck, statutory, stellar, sterling, substantial, sufficient, sure-enough, theaterlike, theatrical, thespian, thrown away, true, true to life, true to nature, true to reality, unadulterated, unaffected, unassumed, unassuming, uncolored, unconcocted, uncopied, uncounterfeited, underacted, underplayed, undisguised, undisguising, undistorted, unexaggerated, unfabricated, unfanciful, unfeigned, unfeigning, unfictitious, unflattering, unimagined, unimitated, uninvented, unobjectionable, unpretended, unpretending, unqualified, unromantic, unsimulated, unspecious, unsynthetic, unvarnished, valid, validate, vaudevillian, venial, verbal, verbatim, veridical, verisimilar, vindicable, warrant, warrantable, weighty, well-argued, well-founded, well-grounded, wholesome, within the law, word-for-word

ROGET THESAURUS

Legitimate

Permission

N permission, leave, allowance, sufferance, tolerance, toleration, liberty, law, license, concession, grace, indulgence, favor, dispensation, exemption, release, connivance, vouchsafement, authorization, warranty, accordance, admission, permit, warrant, brevet, precept, sanction, authority, firman, hukm, pass, passport, furlough, license, carte blanche, ticket of leave, grant, charter, patent, letters patent, permitting, permissive, indulgent, permitted, patent, chartered, permissible, allowable, lawful, legitimate, legal, legalized, licit, unforbid, unforbidden, unconditional, by leave, with leave, on leave, speciali gratia, under favor of, pace, ad libitum, by all means, yes, avec permissin, brevet d'invention.

Legality

N legality, legitimacy, legitimateness, legislature, law, code, corpus juris, constitution, pandect, charter, enactment, statute, rule, canon, ordinance, institution, regulation, bylaw, byelaw, decree, ordonnance, standing order, plebiscite, legal process, form, formula, formality, rite, arm of the law, habeas corpus, fieri facias, jurisprudence, nomology, legislation, codification, equity, common law, lex, lex nonscripta, law of nations, droit des gens, international law, jus gentium, jus civile, civil law, canon law, crown law, criminal law, statute law, ecclesiastical law, administrative law, lex mercatoria, constitutionalism, constitutionality, justice, court, tribunal, judge, lawyer, attorney, legal counsel, legal, legitimate, according to law, vested, constitutional, chartered, legalized, lawful, statutable, statutory, legislatorial, legislative, regulatory, regulated, legally, in the eye of the law, de jure, ignorantia legis neminem excusat, ignorance of the law is no excuse, where law ends tyranny begins.

Right

N right, what ought to be, what should be, fitness, summum jus, justice, equity, equitableness, propriety, fair play, impartiality, measure for measure, give and take, lex talionis, Astraea, Nemesis, Themis, scales of justice, evenhanded justice, karma, suum cuique, clear stage, fair field and no favor, level playing field, morals, law, honor, virtue, right, good, just, reasonable, fit, equal, equable, equatable, evenhanded, fair, legitimate, justifiable, rightful, as it should be, as it ought to be, lawful deserved, rightly, +a bon droit, au bon droit, in justice, in equity, in reason, without distinction of persons, without regard to persons, without respect to persons, upon even terms, Int, all right!, fair's fair, Dieu et mon droit, in equal scale weighing delight and dole, justitia cuum cuique distribuit, justitiae soror incorrupta fides, justitia virtutem regina, thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just.

Dueness

N due, dueness, right, privilege, prerogative, prescription, title, claim, pretension, demand, birthright, immunity, license, liberty, franchise, vested interest, vested right, sanction, authority, warranty, charter, warrant, constitution, tenure, bond, claimant, appellant, plaintiff, having a right to, entitled to, claiming, deserving, meriting, worthy of, privileged, allowed, sanctioned, warranted, authorized, ordained, prescribed, constitutional, chartered, enfranchised, prescriptive, presumptive, absolute, indefeasible, unalienable, inalienable, imprescriptible, inviolable, unimpeachable, unchallenged, sacrosanct, due to, merited, deserved, condign, richly deserved, allowable, lawful, licit, legitimate, legal, legalized, square, unexceptionable, right, equitable, due, en r gle, fit, fitting, correct, proper, meet, befitting, becoming, seemly, decorous, creditable, up to the mark, right as a trivet, just the thing, quite the thing, selon les r gles, duly, ex officio, de jure, by right, by divine right, jure divino, Dei gratia, in the name of, civis Romanus sum, +a chaque saint sa chandelle.

Truth

N truth, fact, reality, plain fact, plain matter of fact, nature, truth, verity, gospel, gospel truth, God's honest truth, orthodoxy, authenticity, veracity, correctness, correctitude, accuracy, exactitude, exactness, preciseness, precision, delicacy, rigor, mathematical precision, punctuality, clockwork precision, conformity to rule, nicety, orthology, ipsissima verba, realism, plain truth, honest truth, sober truth, naked truth, unalloyed truth, unqualified truth, stern truth, exact truth, intrinsic truth, nuda veritas, the very thing, not an illusion, real Simon Pure, unvarnished tale, unvarnished truth, the truth the whole truth and nothing but the trut, just the thing, real, actual, veritable, true, right, correct, certain, substantially true, categorically true, definitively true, true to the letter, true as gospel, unimpeachable, veracious, unreconfuted, unconfuted, unideal, unimagined, realistic, exact, accurate, definite, precise, well-defined, just, just so, so, strict, severe, close, literal, rigid, rigorous, scrupulous, religiously exact, punctual, mathematical, scientific, faithful, constant, unerring, curious, particular, nice, delicate, fine, clean-cut, clear-cut, verified, empirically true, experimentally verified, substantiated, proven (demonstrated), rigorously true, unquestionably true, true by definition, genuine, authentic, legitimate, orthodox, official, ex officio, pure, natural, sound, sterling, unsophisticated, unadulterated, unvarnished, unalloyed, uncolored, in its true colors, pukka, well-grounded, well founded, solid, substantial, tangible, valid, undistorted, undisguised, unaffected, unexaggerated, unromantic, unflattering, truly, verily, indeed, really, in reality, with truth, certainly, actually, in effect, exactly, ad amussim, verbatim, verbatim et literatim, word for word, literally, literatim, totidem vervis, sic, to the letter, chapter and verse, ipsissimis verbis, ad unguem, to an inch, to a nicety, to a hair, to a tittle, to a turn, to a T, au pied de la lettre, neither more nor less, in every respect, in all respects, sous tous les rapports, at any rate, at all events, strictly speaking, the truth is, the fact is, rem acu tetigisti, en suivant la verite, ex facto jus oritur, la verita e figlia del empo, locos y ninos dicen la verdad, crazy people and children tell the truth, nihil est veritatis luce dulcius, veritas nunquam perit, veritatem dies aperit, the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, just the facts, ma'am, just the facts.