legitimate
/lɪˈd͡ʒɪt.ɪ.mət/adjective, noun, verb
legitimate is spelled L-E-G-I-T-I-M-A-T-E. The wrong spelling people search most is legitamate: about 120 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 22 of all searches for the word. Legitimate is an adjective meaning “In accordance with the law or established legal forms and requirements”.
How many letters and syllables are in legitimate?
| Letters | 10: L-E-G-I-T-I-M-A-T-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 17 times per million words; the 4,934th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 2; the most searched, legitamate, about 120 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 legitimate?
Legitimate is spelled L-E-G-I-T-I-M-A-T-E. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 16 of the searches for legitimate 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 legitimate?
Legitimate appears 17 times per million words in written English, the 4,934th 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 legitimate?
- /lɪˈd͡ʒɪt.ɪ.mət/
- /ləˈd͡ʒɪt.ɪ.mət/
As a verb (“To make legitimate, lawful, or valid; especially, to put in…”): /lɪˈd͡ʒɪt.ɪ.meɪt/, /ləˈd͡ʒɪt.ɪ.meɪt/.
Legitimate has 4 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-legitimate_(adj).wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-legitimate_(verb).wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of legitimate
- more legitimate comparative
- most legitimate superlative
- legitimates plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- legitimating participle, present
- legitimated participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does legitimate mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
In accordance with the law or established legal forms and requirements.
- 2
Conforming to known principles, or established or accepted rules or standards; valid.
legitimate reasoning; a legitimate standard or method
- 3
Authentic, real, genuine.
legitimate poems of Chaucer; legitimate inscriptions
- 4
Lawfully begotten, i.e. born to a married couple or later legitimated.
- 5
Legally married.
Besides his four legitimate wives, the caliph had dozens of concubines.
- 6
Relating to hereditary rights.
- 7
Belonging or relating to the legitimate theater.
noun
- 1
A person born to a legally married couple.
verb
- 1
To make legitimate, lawful, or valid; especially, to put in the position or state of a legitimate person before the law, by legal means.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Legitimate in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
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 legitimate come from?
From Middle English legitimat, legytymat, from Medieval Latin lēgitimātus, perfect passive participle of Latin lēgitimō (“to make legal”) (see -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from Latin lēgitimus (“lawful”), originally "fixed by law, in line with the law," from Latin lēx (“law”). Originally "lawfully begotten". The noun was derived from the adjective within English or earlier by substantivization (see -ate (noun-forming suffix)), the verb from the adjective by conversion (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).