Standard Lemma guide

legitimately

adv · 3 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: L AH0 JH IH1 T AH0 M AH0 T L IY0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adv

Meaning 1

In a legitimate manner, properly, fair and square.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: genuinely, legally, validly, above a bit, actually, all things considered, as a matter of fact, by right, certainly, come to think of it, de facto, definitely, de jure, fact is, forsooth, frankly, honestly, in actuality, in all honesty, indubitably, in fact, in faith, in point of fact, in reality, in truth, indeed, legitimately, literally, not gonna lie, properly, really, right, simply, soothfast, soothly, surely, to be frank, to be honest, TBH, to tell the truth, truly, truthfully, undoubtedly, verily, very much, wis, candidly, outright, earnestly, for real, for realsies, forthcomingly, no cap, openly, sincerely, singly, straight up, lawfully, licitly

Antonyms: none provided

2

adverb

Meaning 2

in a lawfully recognized manner

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • let's get married so our child can be born legitimately

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: illegitimately

3

adverb

Meaning 3

in a manner acceptable to common custom

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • you cannot do this legitimately!

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: lawfully, licitly

Antonyms: illegitimately

History

Etymology

Etymology tree English legitimate Proto-Indo-European *leyg-der. Proto-Germanic *līkąder. Proto-Germanic *-līkaz Proto-Germanic *-ê Proto-Germanic *-līkê Proto-West Germanic *-līkē Old English -līċe Middle English -ly English -ly English legitimately From legitimate + -ly.

Across languages

Translations

13 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Bulgarian: законно (zakonno) — in a legitimate manner
  • Catalan: legítimament — in a legitimate manner
  • French: légitimement — in a legitimate manner
  • Galician: lexitimamente — in a legitimate manner
  • German: legitim — in a legitimate manner
  • Hungarian: jogosan — in a legitimate manner
  • Italian: legittimamente — in a legitimate manner
  • Portuguese: legitimamente — in a legitimate manner
  • Russian: зако́нно (zakónno) — in a legitimate manner
  • Russian: легити́мно (legitímno) — in a legitimate manner
  • Serbo-Croatian: легитимно — in a legitimate manner
  • Serbo-Croatian: legitimno — in a legitimate manner
  • Spanish: legítimamente — in a legitimate manner