legitimately

adverb

le·​git·​i·​mate·​ly li-ˈji-tə-mət-lē 

: in a legitimate manner : according to what is lawful, permitted, appropriate, or reasonable

money earned legitimately [=legally]

a question that can be legitimately asked

… objects of ritual significance that were common tribal property seldom if ever could have come legitimately into nontribal hands.

—Robert McC. Adams

The other kind of steroids are the potent inflammation fighters widely and legitimately used to treat dozens of illnesses.

—Paul G. Donohue

… several objections to their book can legitimately be raised.

—Christopher Lehmann-Haupt

Examples of legitimately in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

And over the course of the last several years, Tarbell fellows have produced interesting work and legitimately newsworthy scoops, some of which have been positive about AI, or critical of both OpenAI and Anthropic. —Max Tani, semafor.com, 8 Dec. 2025

The priorities for Ukraine and its European backers — to effectively undermine any ceasefire deal that Russia would legitimately be able to call a victory — appear to be at odds with some very basic tenets of White House policy, meanwhile. —Duarte Dias, CBS News, 8 Dec. 2025

Less thrilled was Sophie, who was legitimately blindsided. —Dalton Ross, Entertainment Weekly, 4 Dec. 2025

This is legitimately presenting all the reasons why. —Jordan McPherson, Miami Herald, 1 Dec. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1593, in the meaning defined above