<p><strong>Adjective</strong></p><ul><li>according to law; lawful: the property's legitimate owner.</li><li>in accordance with established rules, principles, or standards.</li><li>born in wedlock or of legally married parents: legitimate children.</li><li>in accordance with the laws of reasoning; logically inferable; logical: a legitimate conclusion.</li><li>resting on or ruling by the principle of hereditary right: a legitimate sovereign.</li><li>not spurious or unjustified; genuine: It was a legitimate complaint.</li><li>of the normal or regular type or kind.</li><li>of or relating to professionally produced stage plays, as distinguished from burlesque, vaudeville, television, motion pictures, etc.: an actor in the legitimate theater.</li></ul><p><strong>Noun</strong></p><ul><li>the quality or condition of being legitimate.</li><li>a person who is established as being legitimate.</li></ul><p><strong>Verb</strong></p><ul><li>to make lawful or legal; pronounce or state as lawful: Parliament legitimated his accession to the throne.</li><li>to establish as lawfully born: His bastard children were afterward legitimated by law.</li><li>to show or declare to be legitimate or proper: He was under obligation to legitimate his commission.</li><li>to justify; sanction or authorize: His behavior was legitimated by custom.</li></ul>