illegitimate

adjective

il·​le·​git·​i·​mate ˌi-li-ˈji-tə-mət 

1

a

: not recognized as lawful offspring

b

: born of parents not married to each other

2

a

: not sanctioned by law : illegal

b

: not authorized by good usage

c

of a taxon : published but not in accordance with the rules of the relevant international code

3

: not rightly deduced or inferred : illogical

4

: departing from the regular : erratic

illegitimately adverb

Synonyms

• baseborn
• misbegotten
• natural
• spurious
• supposititious
• unfathered

Examples of illegitimate in a Sentence

She thinks that my concerns are illegitimate.

They were fired from their jobs for illegitimate reasons.

Recent Examples on the Web

These practitioners are more likely to obtain products from an untrusted, illegitimate source. —Danielle Sinay, Glamour, 19 Apr. 2024

Most Iranians regard the regime as illegitimate, corrupt, ineffective, and immune to pressure for meaningful reform. —Gregory Brew, TIME, 18 Apr. 2024

Democrats denounced the impeachment of Mr. Mayorkas as illegitimate and politicized. —Luke Broadwater, New York Times, 17 Apr. 2024

The tribes lobbying against the project say Coquille leaders are claiming illegitimate ancestral ties to Medford as a way of sidestepping the more customary — and arduous — process of getting buy-in from the governor, local officials and other tribes. —Hannah Wiley, Los Angeles Times, 9 Apr. 2024

So might the American people: Right-wing evangelicals and Orthodox Jews may be sympathetic to the expansionist project, but many other Americans, including Jewish Americans, see it as illegitimate and profoundly unjust. —Hussein Ibish, The Atlantic, 5 Apr. 2024

Civil society leaders kept saying that Henry’s illegitimate and gang-enabling rule was the very thing promoting that instability. —Pierre Esperance, Foreign Affairs, 2 Apr. 2024

For two seasons, Musser played the illegitimate son of Seabone Hunkle (Steve Kanaly), before exiting the show in 2007. —Ew Staff, EW.com, 23 Feb. 2024

But on March 26th, the creator of the level admitted that it had been made using illegitimate assistance. —Jay Castello, The Verge, 12 Apr. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1536, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Kids Definition

illegitimate

adjective

il·​le·​git·​i·​mate ˌil-i-ˈjit-ə-mət 

1

: born of a father and mother who are not married

2

: illegal

illegitimately adverb

Legal Definition

illegitimate

adjective

il·​le·​git·​i·​mate ˌi-li-ˈji-tə-mət 

1

: not recognized by the law as offspring

specifically : born out of marriage

Note: An illegitimate child is usually legitimated by his or her parents' later marriage. Illegitimate children generally have the same inheritance rights under intestate successions as legitimate children; statutes limiting their inheritance rights have been found to violate the equal protection clause.

2

: not valid according to law

illegitimate noun