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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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of illegitimate
Every American should reject the president's and his cronies' illegitimate use of government power to attack his enemies.
—
Thomas G. Moukawsher, MSNBC Newsweek, 17 Apr. 2025
His failure to win the popular vote made his election feel contestable, even illegitimate.
—Gal Beckerman, The Atlantic, 5 Apr. 2025
And use the company’s publicly available number, not the one the caller provides, which is probably illegitimate.
—Lew Sichelman, Miami Herald, 30 Apr. 2025
Trump himself has suggested moral equivalence between the two sides, claiming Ukraine was at fault for provoking the war, that President Zelensky was illegitimate and that the U.S. should recognize Russia’s annexations of Ukrainian territory.
—Eric Green, Time, 30 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for illegitimate
Thomas G. Moukawsher, MSNBC Newsweek, 17 Apr. 2025
His failure to win the popular vote made his election feel contestable, even illegitimate.
—Gal Beckerman, The Atlantic, 5 Apr. 2025
And use the company’s publicly available number, not the one the caller provides, which is probably illegitimate.
—Lew Sichelman, Miami Herald, 30 Apr. 2025
Trump himself has suggested moral equivalence between the two sides, claiming Ukraine was at fault for provoking the war, that President Zelensky was illegitimate and that the U.S. should recognize Russia’s annexations of Ukrainian territory.
—Eric Green, Time, 30 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for illegitimate
Recent Examples of Synonyms for illegitimate
Adjective
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There are platforms that string together LLMs, spurious claims of agentic superiority, and GPT wrappers upon GPT wrappers that are slapped on existing solutions.—
Alexander Puutio,
Forbes.com,
16 May 2025
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Trade and the Economy To make the case for his tariff policy, Mr. Trump has turned to a stream of misleading statistics and spurious claims about trade history.—
Jamie Leventhal,
New York Times,
29 Apr. 2025
Adjective
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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
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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
Adjective
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At this juncture, a 10-7 regular season record isn’t unreasonable.—
Charley Walters,
Twin Cities,
25 May 2025
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Are my feelings unreasonable? – Mother-of-the-Groom Gloom Dear Mother: Your feelings are completely reasonable.—
R. Eric Thomas,
Mercury News,
23 May 2025
Adjective
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Consumers will pay the price of these misbegotten policies.—
Kevin Rennie,
Hartford Courant,
29 Mar. 2025
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The federal government itself also has a near-monopoly on the market for economically ruinous student loans—the very loans that are themselves disproportionately responsible for abetting the modern four-year college's misbegotten status as a necessary rite of passage to achieve the American dream.—
Nicholas Creel,
MSNBC Newsweek,
18 Apr. 2025
Adjective
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The court concluded that the administration’s unilateral actions without approval by Congress were unlawful.—
Adam S. Minsky,
Forbes.com,
23 May 2025
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Of note: Your Content must not be false, defamatory, misleading or hateful, or infringe any copyright or any other third-party rights or otherwise be unlawful.—
Will Matsuda,
New York Times,
23 May 2025
Adjective
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It's forged in the quiet, difficult moments when doing the right thing seems irrational.—
Victoria Vitchenco,
Forbes.com,
28 May 2025
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Rejecting his challenge in February 2024, Britain’s High Court said the decision to change Harry’s security status was neither irrational nor procedurally unfair.—
Henry Austin,
NBC news,
2 May 2025
Adjective
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Instead of calling for an expansive probe, however, the president identified just one potential target: ActBlue, the Democrats’ online fundraising juggernaut, which has acknowledged receiving over 200 potentially illicit contributions last year from foreign internet addresses.—
Brian Slodysko,
Los Angeles Times,
27 May 2025
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Wetherell wrote that Trump's justification for the tariffs -- both stemming the flow of illicit drugs into the country and resolving a trade imbalance -- is sufficient to satisfy the terms set by Congress.—
Peter Charalambous,
ABC News,
23 May 2025
Adjective
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The Amazon founder was previously married to Mackenzie Scott from 1993 to 2019, and the couple share three sons and an adopted daughter.—
Paul Du Quenoy,
MSNBC Newsweek,
28 Mar. 2025
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His adopted daughter, Sandra Correia Lopes, 12, weighs just 12 kilograms, or 26 pounds, and falls sick frequently.—
Sui-Lee Wee,
New York Times,
16 Feb. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Illegitimate.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/illegitimate. Accessed 6 Jun. 2025.
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