legitimize
Americanverb (used with object)
-
legitimizes,
present (3rd person singular)
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legitimized,
past participle, past
-
legitimizing
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
legitimizesimple
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legitimizessimple
-
have legitimizedperfect
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has legitimizedperfect
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am legitimizingprogressive
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are legitimizingprogressive
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is legitimizingprogressive
-
have been legitimizingperfect progressive
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has been legitimizingperfect progressive
Past
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legitimizedsimple
-
had legitimizedperfect
-
was legitimizingprogressive
-
were legitimizingprogressive
-
had been legitimizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of legitimize
First recorded in 1645–55; from Latin lēgitim(us) ( see legitim) + -ize
Explanation
When you legitimize something, you officially approve it, or make it legal. For example, a 1967 Supreme Court case legitimized interracial marriage in the United States. The verb legitimize is very similar to legalize, although there are some slight differences between the two. When you legalize something, you also legitimize it — it's permitted, or allowed. But when you legitimize something, it doesn't always involve the legal system. For example, your teacher might legitimize open-book tests or your boss could legitimize bringing dogs to work.
Vocabulary lists containing legitimize
Vocabulary from "Stop Expecting Games to Build Empathy" by Julie Muncy
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The Stranger
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Words From the Final 2020 Presidential Debate
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
A third group make technical modifications to "legitimize" the phone, allowing it to re-enter the market.
From Barron's ● Sep. 29, 2026
The move is one of the boldest yet to legitimize the billions of dollars worth of gold unearthed by informal miners, a business often associated with worker exploitation and environmental damage.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 21, 2026
Ng’s presence, first as an adviser and starting last season as commissioner, is helping legitimize the new league.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 8, 2026
Cases like Lynch helped legitimize claims for Black citizenship, portraying birthright citizenship as an American tradition.
From Slate ● Mar. 18, 2026
Many Eurasian states and empires had official religions that contributed to state cohesion, being invoked to legitimize the political leadership and to sanction wars against other peoples.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
“Having the same last name legitimizes our family status it seems,” Glatzel said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026
It argued that the web designer’s victory in that case legitimizes the termination of a female counselor who is married to another woman due to the high school’s freedom of speech.
From Slate ● Jul. 25, 2023
“I think having them call me in and put me on the stand legitimizes my story and who I am,” she said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 6, 2023
This legitimizes their adultification: Carl Grimes quickly becomes his father's backup on "The Walking Dead."
From Salon ● Mar. 6, 2023
However stupid, bad or wicked a man may have been, if he is only rude into the bargain, he condones and legitimizes all his faults.
From The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer: the Wisdom of Life by T. Bailey (Thomas Bailey) Saunders
That victory made the Myanmar native a champion questioned by some, but Van legitimized his reign by prevailing in a grueling battle against Tatsuro Taira last May, stopping his challenger in the final round.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2026
“StubHub legitimized a business that had historically been run by bad actors,” said Randy Nichols, an artist manager and music-industry consultant.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026
A genre as wide-reaching and weird as this one doesn’t need golden statues to be legitimized.
From Salon ● Oct. 23, 2025
Medieval belts also managed a celebration of the pregnant silhouette, but devotion to Mary rather than patriotic “populationism” legitimized it.
From Slate ● Jul. 21, 2025
At least as important, King morally and politically legitimized a youth-led agenda of confrontational social change that would define one of the most crucial decades of the American Century.
From "The Best of Enemies" by Osha Gray Davidson
Rather than serving as "an impartial chronographic work," the researchers suggest it may instead have functioned as "a legitimizing canon of kings, which was periodically updated to remove short-lived or parallel Neo-Assyrian rulers."
From Science Daily ● Aug. 26, 2026
Luis Rivera, executive director of the nonprofit, said Measure CB risks legitimizing the illegal cannabis industry while linking city finances to the tax revenue the businesses would generate.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 1, 2026
He’s legitimizing its use as psychological scaffolding, which allows a person’s cognitive development to be left perpetually unfinished.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 2, 2026
Yet the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior had the unexpected effect of legitimizing Greenpeace in the eyes of many people around the world.
From Slate ● Jul. 22, 2025
The discovery of America was crucial in legitimizing innovation because within forty years no one disputed that it really was an unprecedented event, and one that could not be ignored.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
