What does "legitimately" mean?

In a legitimate manner, properly, fair and square.

Legitimately

Q: What is a synonym for "legitimately"?

Common synonyms include: above a bit, actually, all things considered, as a matter of fact, by right, candidly.

adv

adv ·5 syllables ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adverb

1
In a legitimate manner, properly, fair and square.
"Later, when we played King's Quest 2, I remember being legitimately terrified while inside Dracula's castle. Like, I had nightmares in 16 color EGA."

Adverb

1
in a lawfully recognized manner wordnet
2
in a manner acceptable to common custom wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

above a bit actually all things considered as a matter of fact by right candidly

Antonyms

All antonyms

dishonestly illegally illegitimately

Example

More examples

"In English there is a choice between closed and open punctuation; in the former, the writer uses all punctuation that can legitimately be used, whereas in the latter the writer leaves out all punctuation that can be left out without creating ambiguity."

Etymology

From legitimate + -ly.

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