legitimate

1. 1.

   make legal

   “Marijuana should be legalized”

   Synonymslegalizelegalisedecriminalizedecriminaliselegitimizelegitimiselegitimatizelegitimatise

   Broaderpermit

   Narrowermonetize
2. 2.

   show or affirm to be just and legitimate

   Broaderjustify
3. 3.

   make (an illegitimate child) legitimate; declare the legitimacy of (someone)

   “They legitimized their natural child”

   Broaderchange

Other forms of legitimate

past tense

legitimated·

present participle

legitimating·

third person

legitimates·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about legitimate

What does legitimate mean?

legitimate means "of marriages and offspring; recognized as lawful". That is the primary sense; the word has 7 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in legitimate?

legitimate has 4 syllables: le-git-i-mate. The stress falls on "git". In IPA it is /ləˈdʒɪtəmət/.

What is another word for legitimate?

Close synonyms include logical, lawful, licit, legalize, legalise. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

What is the opposite of legitimate?

The recorded antonyms are illegitimate.

Is legitimate a common word?

legitimate is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.