legitimacy

English

Etymology

From legitimate +‎ -cy.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ləˈd͡ʒɪtɪməsi/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

legitimacy (countable and uncountable, plural legitimacies)

1. The quality or state of being legitimate or valid; validity.
   • 2000, Stuart Nagel, Handbook of Global International Policy, page 193:

     The legitimacy based on a revolutionary essence was replaced by legitimacy with an ultranational, ultra-Yugoslav character.

2. Lawfulness of birth or origin; directness of descent as affecting the royal succession.

Synonyms

• legitimateness (much less common)

Antonyms

• illegitimacy

Translations

quality of being legitimate or valid; validity

Arabic: شَرْعِيَّة (šarʕiyya) Bulgarian: законност (bg) f (zakonnost), легитимност f (legitimnost) Chinese: Mandarin: 合法 (zh) (héfǎ) Finnish: legitimiteetti (fi) French: légitimité (fr) f Galician: lexitimidade (gl) f Georgian: კანონიერება (ḳanoniereba), ლეგიტიმურობა (legiṭimuroba) German: Rechtmäßigkeit (de) f, Legitimität (de) f Italian: legittimità (it) f Japanese: 正統 (ja) (seitō) Portuguese: legitimidade (pt) f, validade (pt) f, validez f Romanian: legitimitate (ro) f Russian: зако́нность (ru) f (zakónnostʹ), закономе́рность (ru) f (zakonomérnostʹ), легити́мность (ru) f (legitímnostʹ) Spanish: legitimidad (es) f Turkish: haklılık (tr) Ukrainian: легіти́мність f (lehitýmnistʹ)