[W/K] :: legitimate

  Legitimate \Le*git"i*mate\ (-m[asl]t), a. [LL. legitimatus, p.
     p. of legitimare to legitimate, fr. L. legitimus legitimate.
     See Legal.]
     1. Accordant with law or with established legal forms and
        requirements; lawful; as, legitimate government;
        legitimate rights; the legitimate succession to the
        throne; a legitimate proceeding of an officer; a
        legitimate heir.
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     2. Lawfully begotten; born in wedlock.
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     3. Authorized; real; genuine; not false, counterfe`t, or
        spurious; as,$legitimate poems of Chaucer; legitimate
        inscriptions.
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     4. Conforming to known principles, or accepted rules; as,
        legitimate reasoning; a legitimate standard, or method; a
        legitimate combination of colors.
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              Tillotson still keeps his place as a legitimate
              English classic.                      --Macaulay.
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     5. Following by logical sequence; reasonable; as, a
        legitimate result; a legitimate inference.
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  Legitimate \Le*git"i*mate\ (-m[=a]t), v. t. [imp. & p. p.
     Legitimated (-m[=a]`t[e^]d); p. pr. & vb. n. Legitimating
     (-m[=a]`t[i^]ng).]
     To make legitimate, lawful, or valid; esp., to put in the
     position or state of a legitimate person before the law, by
     legal means; as, to legitimate a bastard child.
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           To enact a statute of that which he dares not seem to
           approve, even to legitimate vice.        --Milton.
     [1913 Webster]

  legitimate
       adj 1: of marriages and offspring; recognized as lawful [ant: illegitimate]
       2: in accordance with reason or logic; "a logical conclusion"
          [syn: logical]
       3: in accordance with recognized or accepted standards or
          principles; "legitimate advertising practices"
       4: authorized, sanctioned by, or in accordance with law; "a
          legitimate government" [syn: lawful, licit]
       v 1: make legal; "Marijuana should be legalized" [syn: legalize,
             legalise, decriminalize, decriminalise, legitimize,
             legitimise, legitimatize, legitimatise] [ant: outlaw,
             outlaw, outlaw, outlaw]
       2: show or affirm to be just and legitimate
       3: make (an illegitimate child) legitimate; declare the
          legitimacy of (someone); "They legitimized their natural
          child"

  174 Moby Thesaurus words for "legitimate":
     acceptable, actionable, actor-proof, admissible, all-star,
     allowable, applicable, authentic, authoritative, authorize,
     authorized, ballet, balletic, binding, bona fide, by law, candid,
     card-carrying, certify, cinematic, cinematographic, cogent,
     competent, condonable, consistent, constitutional, correct,
     credible, de jure, defensible, dinkum, dispensable, dramatic,
     dramatical, dramaturgic, excusable, exemptible, expiable, fair,
     film, filmic, following the letter, forgivable, genuine, good, ham,
     hammy, histrionic, honest, honest-to-God, inartificial,
     inoffensive, judicial, juridical, just, justiciable, justifiable,
     kosher, lawful, lawmaking, legal, legalize, legislative, legit,
     legitimatize, legitimize, legitimized, licit, lifelike, literal,
     logical, melodramatic, milked, monodramatic, movie, natural,
     naturalistic, operatic, original, overacted, overplayed,
     pardonable, permissible, plausible, proper, pure, rational, real,
     realistic, reasonable, remissible, right, rightful, sanction,
     sanctionable, sanctioned, sane, scenic, self-consistent, sensible,
     simon-pure, simple, sincere, solid, sound, spectacular, stagelike,
     stageworthy, stagy, starstruck, statutory, stellar, sterling,
     substantial, sufficient, sure-enough, theaterlike, theatrical,
     thespian, thrown away, true, true to life, true to nature,
     true to reality, unadulterated, unaffected, unassumed, unassuming,
     uncolored, unconcocted, uncopied, uncounterfeited, underacted,
     underplayed, undisguised, undisguising, undistorted, unexaggerated,
     unfabricated, unfanciful, unfeigned, unfeigning, unfictitious,
     unflattering, unimagined, unimitated, uninvented, unobjectionable,
     unpretended, unpretending, unqualified, unromantic, unsimulated,
     unspecious, unsynthetic, unvarnished, valid, validate,
     vaudevillian, venial, verbal, verbatim, veridical, verisimilar,
     vindicable, warrant, warrantable, weighty, well-argued,
     well-founded, well-grounded, wholesome, within the law,
     word-for-word
  
  

  LEGITIMATE. That which is according to law; as, legitimate children, are 
  lawful children, born in wedlock, in contradistinction to bastards; 
  legitimate authority, or lawful power, in opposition to usurpation.