Legacy

//ˈleɪɡəsi// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Money or property bequeathed to someone in a will.
  2. 2
    (law) a gift of personal property by will wordnet
  3. 3
    Something inherited from a predecessor or the past.

    "John Muir left as his legacy an enduring spirit of respect for the environment."

  4. 4
    The descendant of an alumnus, given preference in academic admissions.

    "Because she was a legacy, her mother's sorority rushed her."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Left over from the past; old and no longer current. especially, not-comparable

    "They have no idea what occurs in the network or its topology, and all of the services remain dependent on it — a very legacy approach to creating services in the optical network."

Synonyms

All synonyms
bequestheritageinheritancepatrimonyattested copybequeathal

Example

More examples

"Basing his invention of public relations on his uncle Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory, Edward Bernays has left a lasting legacy on the media and how they interact with their audiences."

Etymology

From Middle English legacie, from Old French legacie and Medieval Latin lēgātia, from Latin lēgātum.

Related phrases

demonstrative legacylegacy Oscarlegacy codelegacy hunterlegacy medialegacy sequellegacy studentlegacy systemlegacy-free

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.