legitimacy
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From legitim(ate) + -acy.
Pronunciation
[edit]- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ləˈd͡ʒɪtɪməsi/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
- (General American, Canada, Australian) IPA(key): /ləˈd͡ʒɪtɪməsi/, [ləˈd͡ʒɪɾɪməsi]
Noun
[edit]legitimacy (countable and uncountable, plural legitimacies)
- 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.
- (by extension, political science) Public acceptance of an institution, such as a government, corporation, or system.
- 2026 April 18, Jodi Kantor, Adam Liptak, “The Inside Story of Five Days That Remade the Supreme Court”, in The New York Times[1], retrieved 22 April 2026:
- Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. warned that if the court failed to stop the president, its own “institutional legitimacy” would be threatened.
- After decades of inequality and oppression, the regime had lost legitimacy with its own population.
- 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.
- Lawfulness of birth or origin; directness of descent as affecting the royal succession.
Synonyms
[edit]- legitimateness (much less common)
Antonyms
[edit]Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]quality of being legitimate or valid; validity
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