1
as in spurious
born to a father and mother who are not married
despite being illegitimate, Alexander Hamilton rose to greatness
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in illegal
contrary to or forbidden by law
an illegitimate use of campaign contributions for personal expenses
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in unreasonable
not using or following good reasoning
made several illegitimate inferences
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of illegitimate
Her father also burdened her with looking after his illegitimate son Cy (Daryl McCormack), a wannabe GOP star who will spout any rhetoric to get ahead.
—
Esther Zuckerman, Time, 8 Sep. 2025
Dumas’ injunction states that any decisions made in meetings with Weatherington claiming the chair seat are illegitimate.
—Raisa Habersham, Miami Herald, 8 Sep. 2025
Putin asked, reiterating a common Russian argument that their country sees the Ukrainian leader as illegitimate.
—Tara Suter, The Hill, 4 Sep. 2025
What the rest of the MacKenzies don’t know, however, is that Ellen, in the midst of her grief, has fallen head over heels for Brian, the illegitimate son of the despicable Lord Lovat (Tony Curran) and a member of a rival clan.
—Max Gao, HollywoodReporter, 29 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for illegitimate
Esther Zuckerman, Time, 8 Sep. 2025
Dumas’ injunction states that any decisions made in meetings with Weatherington claiming the chair seat are illegitimate.
—Raisa Habersham, Miami Herald, 8 Sep. 2025
Putin asked, reiterating a common Russian argument that their country sees the Ukrainian leader as illegitimate.
—Tara Suter, The Hill, 4 Sep. 2025
What the rest of the MacKenzies don’t know, however, is that Ellen, in the midst of her grief, has fallen head over heels for Brian, the illegitimate son of the despicable Lord Lovat (Tony Curran) and a member of a rival clan.
—Max Gao, HollywoodReporter, 29 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for illegitimate
Recent Examples of Synonyms for illegitimate
Adjective
-
The report, as expected based on its authors, raised a large series of spurious doubts about climate science, which led to a massive critique of the report by other climate scientists.—
ArsTechnica,
ArsTechnica,
19 Sep. 2025
-
The most negative and spurious viral videos are the ones that are leading to the most views for advertisers.—
John Brandon,
Forbes.com,
11 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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Louisville police say anything that goes into the air or explodes is illegal for average citizens.—
James Bruggers,
The Courier-Journal,
5 July 2017
-
Official fireworks shows took place over the city, and illegal pyrotechnics lit up the sky everywhere in between.—
Lisa Beebe,
Los Angeles Magazine,
5 July 2017
Adjective
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The influencer, who was in her 20s and had garnered over 300,000 followers on TikTok, allegedly wanted to cut ties with Choi due to his coercive instructions and unreasonable scheduling, according to the reports.—
Latoya Gayle,
PEOPLE,
6 Oct. 2025
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As Philadelphia gears up for hopefully a return to the playoffs in 2025-26 (although title expectations would be probably an unreasonable expectation now), the team is not being particularly precious with its previous rotational thoughts.—
Alex Kirschenbaum,
MSNBC Newsweek,
6 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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It was directed by Pollack, Redford’s creative partner on seven films starting with This Property Is Condemned and stretching through 1990’s misbegotten Havana, a riff on Casablanca with Redford in the Bogart role.—
Matt Zoller Seitz,
Vulture,
17 Sep. 2025
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Because the Sunbeam Alpine and Tiger are essentially identical, save for their engines and some unibody sheet metal beneath the exterior body panels, there exist many misbegotten conversions as well as some quite deceptive clones.—
Robert Ross,
Robb Report,
22 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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The tort of battery, meaning unlawful and harmful physical contact, and intentional infliction of emotional distress, which refers to using extreme conduct to terrorize another, are potential claims.—
Michael McCann,
Sportico.com,
6 Oct. 2025
-
Hoping to keep the Solar for All program on track, the group has asked a jury to declare the program's termination unlawful and issue an injunction requiring the EPA to reinstate the program.—
Ashley Belanger,
ArsTechnica,
6 Oct. 2025
Adjective
-
Jim Edwards InvestingMarkets Back in the ’90s a Fed chief warned about ‘irrational exuberance’ in the markets.—
Geoff Colvin,
Fortune,
30 Sep. 2025
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Those poor scientists – their federal funding has been taken away, their research programs scrapped, and their rigorous scientific findings ignored in favor of one man’s irrational, uninformed opinion.—
Rafael Perez,
Oc Register,
25 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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Their function, Milic said, was to illicit wonder and curiosity.—
Richard Ruelas,
AZCentral.com,
4 Oct. 2025
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Using records from Japan's Foreign Ministry, a map shows that, in addition to Canada, Australia, France, Italy, New Zealand and the United Kingdom have also deployed warships and aircraft to counter illicit North Korean activities at sea this year.—
Ryan Chan,
MSNBC Newsweek,
1 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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Let sound political prescience but take the place of an unreasoning prejudice, and this will be done.—
Frederick Douglass,
The Atlantic,
16 Aug. 2017
Cite this Entry
“Illegitimate.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/illegitimate. Accessed 9 Oct. 2025.
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