legitimately

adv

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"legitimately" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“legitimately” has 18 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #18,120. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#18,120
frequency rank, English
2,297
“L” headwords
18
tracked misspellings
1
confusable pair

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - In a legitimate manner, properly, fair and square.

Corpus desk

Index EN-legitimately · legitimately · English

legitimately · rank #18,120 · 18 variants · 1 confusable

  • FREQ-MID #18,120
  • LEN-MEGA 12 letters
  • VOW-6 6 vowels
  • CONFUS-LOW 1 pairs
  • VAR-HIGH 18 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,297
  • PHOTO-FINISH leaps

Nearest frequency peer: leaps (-1 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Rank peers near misspelling magnet “legitimately”

Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword

corpus weight

What this shows “legitimately” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

legitimately vs legitimate
83% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for legitimately
PropertyValue
Headwordlegitimately
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdverb
Letters12
Frequency rank#18,120
Misspellings tracked18
Confusable pairs1
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “legitimately”

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).legitimatelylands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Same rarity band neighbours include “leaps” (#18,119), “lattice” (#18,118), “Leroy” (#18,122). Among 2,297 “L” headwords, “legitimately” is #18,120. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 18 spelling variants around legitimately, anadverb. Corpus frequency is #18,120 among 2,297 “L” headwords. Dominant gloss: "In a legitimate manner, properly, fair and square.".

Our generated misspelling index lists 18 likely wrong-spelling variants for legitimately, with forms such as "elgitimately", "leggitimately", and "legiitmately". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "legitimate", a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

Etymologically, the entry records: From legitimate + -ly. The correct English form is legitimately, spelled L-E-G-I-T-I-M-A-T-E-L-Y.

Definition

  1. 1
    In a legitimate manner, properly, fair and square.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how legitimately appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Later, when we played King's Quest 2, I remember being legitimately terrified while inside Dracula's castle. Like, I had nightmares in 16 color EGA.
  2. I bought the magazines, ran home after work, filmed myself flipping through the pages—half legitimately fangirling over the boys, half making fun of people like myself who fangirl over the boys.

Etymology

From legitimate + -ly.

This word in other languages

légitimement(Français)legitim(Deutsch)legitimamente(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • elgitimately
  • leggitimately
  • legiitmately
  • legitiamtely
  • legitimaetly
  • legitimatelly
  • legitimatelyy
  • legitimateyl
  • legitimatley
  • legitimattely
  • legitimmately
  • legitimtaely
  • legitmiately
  • legittimately
  • legtiimately
  • leigtimately
  • lgeitimately
  • llegitimately

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of legitimately - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.

elgitimately2leggitimately1legiitmately2legitiamtely2legitimaetly2legitimatelly1legitimatelyy1legitimateyl2
Edit distance from "legitimately"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "legitimately"?
"legitimately" is spelled L-E-G-I-T-I-M-A-T-E-L-Y.
What does "legitimately" mean?
As an adverb, "legitimately" means: In a legitimate manner, properly, fair and square.
What words are commonly confused with "legitimately"?
"legitimately" is commonly confused with "legitimate". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
What is the origin of the word "legitimately"?
From legitimate + -ly. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "legitimately", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 12 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

interruption#18,111pathological#18,152cosmopolitan#18,049colonization#18,045

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (18 here; floor ≥5).

transformer18 variantsimpoverished18 variantslongitudinal18 variantsidentifiable18 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list