illegitimate
Other forms: illegitimates
Something illegitimate is unlawful, or improper. If you're a doctor, even a great doctor, but you were never certified by the medical board, then you're an illegitimate doctor.
Illegitimate has the root for "law" in it, and something illegitimate is outside the law or custom. A child not born to married parents is known as an illegitimate child, although so many people are making different choices about how to raise families, that the stigma is dropping away, especially if the child isn't the result of philandering (cheating). In King Lear, Edmund is mad that he's an illegitimate son, because it means he can't inherit the throne.
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contrary to or forbidden by law
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of marriages and offspring; not recognized as lawful
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Synonyms:
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unauthorised, unauthorized
not endowed with authority
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illegal
prohibited by law or by official or accepted rules
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adulterine
conceived in adultery
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base, baseborn
illegitimate
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bastardly, misbegot, misbegotten, spurious
born out of wedlock
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fatherless
not having a known or legally responsible father
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left-handed
(of marriages) illicit or informal
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unlawful, wrongful
having no legally established claim
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invalid
having no cogency or legal force
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Antonyms:
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legitimate
of marriages and offspring; recognized as lawful
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authorised, authorized
endowed with authority
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legal
established by or founded upon law or official or accepted rules
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lawfully-begotten
born in wedlock; enjoying full filial rights
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left-handed, morganatic
(of marriages) of a marriage between one of royal or noble birth and one of lower rank; valid but with the understanding that the rank of the inferior remains unchanged and offspring do not succeed to titles or property of the superior
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lawful, rightful, true
having a legally established claim
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valid
well grounded in logic or truth or having legal force
- show more antonyms...
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unauthorised, unauthorized
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the illegitimate offspring of unmarried parents
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synonyms:
bastard, by-blow, illegitimate child, love child, whoreson
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Vocabulary lists containing illegitimate
In the 1950s, John Howard Griffin underwent a skin-darkening procedure to investigate how he would be treated in the segregated South if people perceived him as African American. Learn these words from Griffin's harrowing investigation of race and racism.
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