1
as in spurious
born to a father and mother who are not married
despite being illegitimate, Alexander Hamilton rose to greatness
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in illegal
contrary to or forbidden by law
an illegitimate use of campaign contributions for personal expenses
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in unreasonable
not using or following good reasoning
made several illegitimate inferences
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of illegitimate
Nothing in the court’s opinion, however, required states to create voucher programs, much less implied that reserving public education funds for public schools was illegitimate.
—
Derek W. Black, The Conversation, 6 May 2025
Every American should reject the president's and his cronies' illegitimate use of government power to attack his enemies.
—Thomas G. Moukawsher, MSNBC Newsweek, 17 Apr. 2025
His failure to win the popular vote made his election feel contestable, even illegitimate.
—Gal Beckerman, The Atlantic, 5 Apr. 2025
And use the company’s publicly available number, not the one the caller provides, which is probably illegitimate.
—Lew Sichelman, Miami Herald, 30 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for illegitimate
Derek W. Black, The Conversation, 6 May 2025
Every American should reject the president's and his cronies' illegitimate use of government power to attack his enemies.
—Thomas G. Moukawsher, MSNBC Newsweek, 17 Apr. 2025
His failure to win the popular vote made his election feel contestable, even illegitimate.
—Gal Beckerman, The Atlantic, 5 Apr. 2025
And use the company’s publicly available number, not the one the caller provides, which is probably illegitimate.
—Lew Sichelman, Miami Herald, 30 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for illegitimate
Recent Examples of Synonyms for illegitimate
Adjective
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First simply keeping Paul from her, lawyer Laurent then gets the courts involved, filing spurious allegations of the ugliest kind in a successful bid to get her custody suspended entirely.—
Jessica Kiang,
Variety,
26 May 2025
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There are platforms that string together LLMs, spurious claims of agentic superiority, and GPT wrappers upon GPT wrappers that are slapped on existing solutions.—
Alexander Puutio,
Forbes.com,
16 May 2025
Adjective
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Official fireworks shows took place over the city, and illegal pyrotechnics lit up the sky everywhere in between.—
Lisa Beebe,
Los Angeles Magazine,
5 July 2017
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Louisville police say anything that goes into the air or explodes is illegal for average citizens.—
James Bruggers,
The Courier-Journal,
5 July 2017
Adjective
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The vast majority of post commenters assured the OP that her feelings are completely valid and that her mother is being unreasonable.—
Toria Sheffield,
People.com,
7 June 2025
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But leading the team to the Finals is not an unreasonable request.—
Troy Renck,
Denver Post,
6 June 2025
Adjective
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The misbegotten union gave birth to the titan towers of Upper Downtown.—
Aldo Svaldi,
Denver Post,
29 May 2025
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Her misbegotten experiment was the culmination of a cycle of extreme policies set off by Britain’s decision to forsake the world’s largest trading bloc.—
Mark Landler,
New York Times,
13 Apr. 2025
Adjective
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Nonetheless, this latest ruling may embolden such plaintiffs in California and elsewhere to assert unlawful discrimination claims with greater confidence and, perhaps, greater frequency.—
Dan Eaton,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
16 June 2025
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She was convicted in 1995 on nine charges, including conspiracy to remove body parts and unlawful authorization of the removal of eyes, hearts, lungs and brains from corpses.—
Bryan Alexander,
USA Today,
16 June 2025
Adjective
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To many watching, Elon Musk’s decision to publicly insult President Trump seemed self-destructive, if not outright irrational.—
Joel Shulman,
Forbes.com,
8 June 2025
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And then the irrational with the Tom Thibodeau move.—
Ira Winderman,
Sun Sentinel,
5 June 2025
Adjective
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That included Vásquez's organization, which was about to receive a four-year, $2.5 million grant to continue fighting illicit activity that affects Indigenous people in the region.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
8 June 2025
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The operation allegedly generated more than $21.6 million in illicit proceeds.—
Thao Nguyen,
USA Today,
6 June 2025
Adjective
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The Amazon founder was previously married to Mackenzie Scott from 1993 to 2019, and the couple share three sons and an adopted daughter.—
Paul Du Quenoy,
MSNBC Newsweek,
28 Mar. 2025
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His adopted daughter, Sandra Correia Lopes, 12, weighs just 12 kilograms, or 26 pounds, and falls sick frequently.—
Sui-Lee Wee,
New York Times,
16 Feb. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Illegitimate.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/illegitimate. Accessed 19 Jun. 2025.
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