Legitimately

How to spell legitimately

12 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce legitimately

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does legitimately mean?

1. adverbIn a way that is lawful, valid, or genuinely justified.

Legitimately in a sentence

• The company acquired the patents legitimately through a public auction.

• She could legitimately claim the refund because the warranty was still active.

Where does legitimately come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This adverb traces back to the Latin word legitimus, meaning 'lawful' or 'according to law', which was itself built on lex (in its stem form legis), the Latin word for 'law'. By the late medieval period the adjective passed into English as 'legitimate', first applied to a child born to married parents and to rulers whose claim to power was lawful. The adverb 'legitimately' formed within English by adding the familiar '-ly' ending to that adjective, broadening over time from a strict legal sense to the everyday meaning of 'genuinely' or 'with good reason'. The same Latin lex root sits inside relatives such as 'legal', 'legislate', and 'legitimate' itself, which is a useful reminder that the tricky middle is spelled 'legitim' and not 'ligitim'. The recurring soft 'g' and the unstressed vowels are exactly what make writers second-guess the spelling.

How the word is built

• legitim- (from Latin legitimus: lawful, from lex/legis: law)
• -ate (adjective base)
• -ly (adverb suffix)