illegitimate
- born of parents who are not married to each other; born out of wedlock: an illegitimate child.
- not legitimate; not sanctioned by law or custom.
- unlawful; illegal: an illegitimate action.
- irregular; not in good usage.
- Logic. not in accordance with the principles of valid inference.
- Obsolete. (formerly, in London)
- of or relating to stage plays in which musical numbers were inserted because of laws that gave only a few theaters the exclusive right to produce straight dramas.
- acting in or producing such productions.
- a person recognized or looked upon as illegitimate.
- to declare illegitimate.
Origin of illegitimate
Synonyms for illegitimate
See more synonyms for on Thesaurus.comExamples from the Web for illegitimately
Historical Examples of illegitimately
In many ways the position of the illegitimately born child, always sufficiently bad, has been rendered worse under war conditions.
Women's Wild OatsC. Gasquoine Hartley
The English law has always looked with great disfavor on the illegitimately born child.
Women's Wild OatsC. Gasquoine Hartley
Every illegitimately born child would be placed in a position of safety.
Women's Wild OatsC. Gasquoine Hartley
That is not the case, unless we give the word disease an inconveniently and illegitimately wide extension.
Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 2 (of 6)Havelock Ellis
If it cannot have representation legitimately, it will try to get it illegitimately or extra legitimately.
illegitimate
- born of parents who were not married to each other at the time of birth; bastard
- forbidden by law; illegal; unlawful
- contrary to logic; incorrectly reasoned
- an illegitimate person; bastard
Word Origin and History for illegitimately
illegitimate
1530s, "born out of wedlock," formed in English (and replacing earlier illegitime, c.1500), modeled on Latin illegitimus "not legitimate" (see il- + legitimate). Sense of "unauthorized, unwarranted" is from 1640s. Phrase illegitimi non carborundum, usually "translated" as "don't let the bastards grind you down," is fake Latin (by 1965, said to date from c.1939) (Carborundum was a brand of abrasives).