legitimacy
/ləˈd͡ʒɪtɪməsi/US/ləˈd͡ʒɪtɪməsi/
legitimacy noun: the quality or state of being legitimate or valid; validity.
Noun
legitimacy (countable and uncountable, plural legitimacies)
- The quality or state of being legitimate or valid; validity.
- The legitimacy based on a revolutionary essence was replaced by legitimacy with an ultranational, ultra-Yugoslav character.2000, Stuart Nagel, Handbook of Global International Policy, page 193
- Public acceptance of an institution, such as a government, corporation, or system.
- Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. warned that if the court failed to stop the president, its own “institutional legitimacy” would be threatened.2026 April 18, Jodi Kantor, Adam Liptak, “The Inside Story of Five Days That Remade the Supreme Court”, in The New York Times, retrieved 22 Apr 2026
- After decades of inequality and oppression, the regime had lost legitimacy with its own population.
- Lawfulness of birth or origin; directness of descent as affecting the royal succession.
legitimacy meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
legitimacy in Hindi
- legitimacy
- वैधता vaidhtā
legitimacy in Tamil
- சட்ட உரிமைநிலை, சட்ட ஒழுங்குக்குட்பட்ட தன்மை, சட்டத்தகுதியாக்குதல், சட்டப்படி முறைப்படுத்து, சட்டப்படியான நிலை, முறைமணத்தில் பிறத்தல்
legitimacy in Marathi
- वैधता
legitimacy in Urdu
- قانونیت, شریعیت
More languagesFewer languages
- legitimacy in Bengali
- বৈধতা, ন্যায়সংগততা, আইনানুগ অধিকার
- legitimacy in Telugu
- చట్టబద్ధత
- legitimacy in Kannada
- ನ್ಯಾಯಸಮ್ಮತತೆ, ನ್ಯಾಯಸಮ್ಮತತೆಯ
- legitimacy in Punjabi
- ਜਾਇਜ਼ਤਾ
- legitimacy in Odia
- ବୈଧତା
- legitimacy in Arabic
- شَرْعِيَّة šarʕiyya
- legitimacy in Thai
- ความชอบธรรม kwaam-chɔ̂ɔp-tam
Examples of legitimacy in a sentence
- The fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 was seen by many as proof of capitalism’s legitimacy over communism.
- Democracy’s legitimacy stems from the consent of the governed.
Synonyms of legitimacy
- legitimateness
- allowability
- allowableness
- liceity
- legitness
- permissibility
- permissibleness
- validity
- validness
Antonyms
Forms of legitimacy
| plural | legitimacies |
|---|
Origin of legitimacy
From legitim(ate) + -acy.
Words formed from legitimacy
Questions about legitimacy
- What does legitimacy mean?
- Legitimacy means the quality or state of being legitimate or valid; validity.
- What is legitimacy in Hindi?
- Legitimacy in Hindi is वैधता (vaidhtā). See Legitimacy meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use legitimacy in a sentence?
- The fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 was seen by many as proof of capitalism’s legitimacy over communism.
- What part of speech is legitimacy?
- Legitimacy is a noun.
- How do you pronounce legitimacy?
- Legitimacy is pronounced /ləˈd͡ʒɪtɪməsi/ (UK).
- What is the plural of legitimacy?
- The plural of legitimacy is legitimacies.
Words near legitimacy in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: legitimacy (page history and authors); वैधता (Hindi) (page history and authors); legitimacy (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); legitimacy (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); legitimacy (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); legitimacy (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); legitimacy (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); legitimacy (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); legitimacy (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); legitimacy (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-legitimacy.wav.
Cite this entry: “legitimacy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/legitimacy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.