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legitimate

/lɪˈdʒɪtɪmət//lɪˈdʒɪtɪmət/·adjective
conforming to the rules or the law; genuine and justified
Fig. 1 — A plain sheet of paper lies on the desk, saying whatever it says, with nothing to back it up.
01Definition

Something legitimate is allowed by the rules, recognized by authority, or simply real rather than faked. A legitimate government holds power by lawful means; a legitimate question is a fair one worth answering; a legitimate business is the genuine article, not a front. The word stretches from strict legality to plain authenticity, but the core is constant: it stands up to scrutiny and is not arbitrary, forged, or merely pretended.

02In use
  • iA claim becomes legitimate in science only once its authors can substantiate it with evidence others reproduce.
  • iiThe election was widely accepted as legitimate, and the new government took office without protest.
  • iiiShe had a legitimate reason for missing the deadline, so no penalty was applied.
03Collocations
  • a legitimate concern
  • legitimate authority
  • a legitimate business
  • perfectly legitimate
  • a legitimate claim

Family legitimacy (noun) · legitimately (adverb) · legitimize (verb)

04Relations

=lawful, valid, genuine, rightful, authentic

≠illegitimate, arbitrary, fraudulent

06TOEFL & IELTS

Common in TOEFL/IELTS reading on politics, law, and business. Two senses to track: 'lawful/authorized' (a legitimate ruler) and 'reasonable/valid' (a legitimate concern). In Writing, 'a legitimate concern is…' is a strong way to concede a point before answering it. Don't confuse it with 'legible' (readable). The verb legitimize means to make something accepted as legitimate.

07Asked
Is legitimate pronounced differently as an adjective and a verb?
Yes, and only in the ending. The adjective closes on a weak vowel: /lɪˈdʒɪtɪmət/, le-JIT-i-mut. When legitimate works as a verb — to legitimate a regime — the ending strengthens to /-meɪt/ and rhymes with 'mate', the same split as graduate and estimate. In exam listening the adjective is what you will almost always hear.
Is 'legit' a real word?
Real, dictionary-listed, and over a century old — the clipping goes back to 1890s theatre slang, where 'the legit' meant serious drama as opposed to vaudeville. Today it means genuine (the offer is legit) or, more loosely, excellent. Keep it out of essays and formal emails: examiners read legit as conversational register, not as vocabulary range.
Can legitimate be a verb, or is it legitimize?
Both exist. American English strongly prefers legitimize (the vote legitimized the movement); British English keeps legitimate-as-verb alive alongside it, and the older legitimatize is also on record. All three mean the same thing: to make something accepted as legitimate. In the scene above, that is the stamp's entire job — not a word on the page changes, only its standing does.
What does legitimate mean in law, as in a legitimate child?
The oldest sense: born to legally married parents. For centuries legitimacy decided inheritance — an 'illegitimate' child could be barred from titles and estates — and the terms survive in family-law history and in period reading passages. Modern statutes have largely erased the legal difference, but the verb use lingers in old texts: a later marriage could legitimate a child.
What does 'a legitimate concern' mean?
A concern that deserves to be taken seriously — reasonable and fairly raised, whether or not it wins the argument. This is the word's second life beyond lawfulness: legitimate questions, legitimate criticism and legitimate excuses are justified, not legal. The grading intensifier is perfectly legitimate, which defends a choice someone else has attacked: 'a perfectly legitimate question'.
What is the opposite of legitimate?
Illegitimate, with il- — the regular negative before l, as in illegal and illogical. Depending on which sense you negate, its neighbours differ: against the lawful sense stand arbitrary and unauthorized; against the genuine sense stand fraudulent and fake. Note that illegitimate is milder than illegal — an illegitimate tactic breaks norms and expectations, not necessarily any law.