legitimacy
/ləˈd͡ʒɪtɪməsi/noun
legitimacy is spelled L-E-G-I-T-I-M-A-C-Y. The wrong spelling people search most is legitimity: about 10 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 85 of all searches for the word. Legitimacy is a noun meaning “The quality or state of being legitimate or valid; validity”. The plural of legitimacy is legitimacies.
How many letters and syllables are in legitimacy?
| Letters | 10: L-E-G-I-T-I-M-A-C-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 5 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 4.3 times per million words; the 12,397th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, legitimity, about 10 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell legitimacy?
Legitimacy is spelled L-E-G-I-T-I-M-A-C-Y. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 85 of the searches for legitimacy in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is legitimacy?
Legitimacy appears 4.3 times per million words in written English, the 12,397th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce legitimacy?
- UK /ləˈd͡ʒɪtɪməsi/
- US /ləˈd͡ʒɪtɪməsi/
- US [ləˈd͡ʒɪɾɪməsi]
Legitimacy has 5 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-legitimacy.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-VCcortex-legitimacy.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of legitimacy
- legitimacies plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does legitimacy mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The quality or state of being legitimate or valid; validity.
- 2
Public acceptance of an institution, such as a government, corporation, or system.
After decades of inequality and oppression, the regime had lost legitimacy with its own population.
- 3
Lawfulness of birth or origin; directness of descent as affecting the royal succession.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Legitimacy in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense quality of being legitimate or valid; validity:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | légitimité |
| German | Rechtmäßigkeit, Legitimität |
| Portuguese | legitimidade, validade, validez |
| Spanish | legitimidad |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does legitimacy come from?
From legitim(ate) + -acy.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).