Legitimacy

//ləˈd͡ʒɪtɪməsi// noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The quality or state of being legitimate or valid; validity. countable, uncountable

    "The legitimacy based on a revolutionary essence was replaced by legitimacy with an ultranational, ultra-Yugoslav character."

  2. 2
    undisputed credibility wordnet
  3. 3
    The quality or state of being legitimate or valid; validity.; Public acceptance of an institution, such as a government, corporation, or system. broadly, countable, uncountable

    "After decades of inequality and oppression, the regime had lost legitimacy with its own population."

  4. 4
    lawfulness by virtue of being authorized or in accordance with law wordnet
  5. 5
    Lawfulness of birth or origin; directness of descent as affecting the royal succession. countable, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms
authenticitylegitimatenessabsolute powerabsolute realismabsolutismactionability

Example

More examples

"Even if all countries of the world and all the news media were to recognize the legitimacy of this racist regime, on the moral level it would always remain racist."

Etymology

From legitimate + -cy.

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