légitime

\le.ʒi.tim\

/\le.ʒi.tim\/ adj

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

The verdict

“légitime” has 12 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #4,002. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#4,002
frequency rank, French
2,567
“L” headwords
12
tracked misspellings
2
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui a les conditions, les qualités requises par la loi.

Corpus desk

Index FR-legitime · légitime · French

légitime · rank #4,002 · 12 variants · 2 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #4,002
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-LOW 2 pairs
  • VAR-MID 12 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,567
  • PHOTO-FINISH libertés

Nearest frequency peer: libertés (-1 rank slots)

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.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « légitime »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « légitime » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

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).

légitime vs légitimer
89% similar
légitime vs légitimité
70% similar

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

Key facts for légitime
PropertyValue
Headwordlégitime
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\le.ʒi.tim\
Letters8
Frequency rank#4,002
Misspellings tracked12
Confusable pairs2
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « légitime »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).légitimese place ici:

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « libertés » (#4,001), « mensonge » (#4,003), « islamique » (#4,000). Parmi 2,567 lemmes en « L », « légitime » est au #4,002. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 12 spelling variants around légitime (IPA \le.ʒi.tim\), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #4,002 among 2,567 “L” headwords. Wiktionary lists 5 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for légitime, with forms such as "legitime", "lgéitime", and "llégitime". 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 2 confusable-pair relationships, "légitimer", "légitimité", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is légitime, spelled L-É-G-I-T-I-M-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui a les conditions, les qualités requises par la loi.
  2. 2
    Qualifie un souverain qui règne en vertu d’une dévolution du pouvoir conforme à la loi du pays.
  3. 3
    Qualifie un enfant né durant le mariage, ou après la mort du père dans le délai que fixe la loi.
  4. 4
    Qualifie l’intérêt de l’argent au taux fixé par la loi.
  5. 5
    Qui se justifie, qu’on peut admettre, excuser.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Pouvoir légitime.
  2. Autorité légitime.

Synonyms

legit

Antonyms

illégitime

This word in other languages

legitimate(English)legítimo(Español)rechtmäßig(Deutsch)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • legitime
  • lgéitime
  • llégitime
  • léggitime
  • légiitme
  • légitiem
  • légitimme
  • légitmie
  • légittime
  • légtiime
  • léigtime
  • élgitime

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of légitime - 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.

legitime1lgéitime2llégitime1léggitime1légiitme2légitiem2légitimme1légitmie2
Edit distance from "légitime"

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 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "légitime"?
"légitime" is spelled L-É-G-I-T-I-M-E. The IPA pronunciation is \le.ʒi.tim\.
What does "légitime" mean?
As an adjective, "légitime" means: Qui a les conditions, les qualités requises par la loi.
What words are commonly confused with "légitime"?
"légitime" is commonly confused with "légitimer", "légitimité". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "légitime"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "légitime" is \le.ʒi.tim\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "légitime" come from?
"légitime" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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 French words by spelling shape

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

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

libertés#4,001mensonge#4,003fenêtres#3,996positive#4,011

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (12 here; floor ≥5).

islamique12 variantspériodes12 variantscardinal12 variantsargument12 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list