illegitimate
Americanadjective
-
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.
-
noun
verb (used with object)
adjective
-
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
noun
Related Words
See illegal.
Other Word Forms
- illegitimacy noun
- illegitimately adverb
- illegitimateness noun
- illegitimation noun
Etymology
Origin of illegitimate
First recorded in 1530–40; il- 2 + legitimate
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.
If ever there was justification for an asterisk next to a record, his illegitimate assault on a scoring record is it.
From Los Angeles Times
And in a 1778 painting of Gainsborough’s wife, Margaret, who was the illegitimate daughter of a duke, he poses her classically in costly black lace.
But the failure to do so doesn’t make the cause an illegitimate one.
"He seems to believe that any good-faith disagreement with his own interpretation of the law is, by definition, illegitimate," Schwinn told AFP.
From Barron's
Years of decay have left oil fields, pipelines and refineries in disrepair, with investors wary of sinking large sums and signing deals with a government led by Rodríguez that is widely viewed as illegitimate.
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.
