legítimo
The verdict
“legítimo” is a regularly-used Portuguese word, ranked #8,355 in Portuguese word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #8,355
- frequency rank, Portuguese
- 8
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 2
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - de acordo com a lei; legal
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | legítimo |
| Language | Portuguese |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #8,355 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “legítimo” sits in Portuguese frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The Portuguese entry for legítimo is 8 letters long, classified as an adjective. Corpus data places it at rank #8,355 in overall Portuguese word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for legítimo, with forms such as "elgítimo", "leggítimo", and "legtíimo". 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, "legitimar", "legitimado", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct Portuguese form is legítimo, spelled L-E-G-Í-T-I-M-O.
Definition
- 1de acordo com a lei; legal
- 2de acordo com as regras, padrões e princípios estabelecidos
- 3diz-se de criança nascida dentro de um casamento, de pais legalmente casados
- 4de acordo com as leis da lógica e da razão
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: elgítimo,leggítimo,legtíimo,legíitmo,legítimmo,legítiom,legítmio,legíttimo,leígtimo,lgeítimo,llegítimo
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of legítimo - 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.
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 Portuguese corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "legítimo"?
What does "legítimo" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "legítimo"?
What language does "legítimo" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “legítimo”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct Portuguese spelling is L-E-G-Í-T-I-M-O - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Don't mix it up with “legitimar” - see the side-by-side comparison. legítimo vs legitimar
- Browse more Portuguese words and confusable pairs in the same reference. Portuguese words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.