What does legitimates mean?
Legitimates is most often the third-person singular form of the verb legitimize, meaning to make something valid, proper, or recognized. A new law may legitimize a practice, a treaty may legitimize a boundary, or a political settlement may legitimize the authority of a commission. The word conveys more than simple approval: it suggests that something previously questioned or unsettled is now granted proper status or sanctioned by recognized authority. Legitimates can also be a plural noun denoting people or institutions regarded as rightful or properly constituted, although this use is less common and often occurs in political conflict. The term is principally formal and appears frequently in discussions of governments, elections, claims, institutions, and historical succession. Its usefulness lies in expressing the process by which disputed or uncertain authority becomes accepted as valid, while also hinting at questions of power and control over who has the authority to confer that status.
To make or treat something as rightful, valid, or authorized.
"The constitutional court legitimates the government's interpretation of the emergency regulations."
Formal and especially common in legal, political, and institutional contexts.
Plural of legitimate: people or institutions regarded as rightful, properly constituted, or recognized.
"The opposition denied that the military council were the country's legitimates."
Relatively uncommon and most natural in contexts involving disputed rulers, governments, or institutions.
The plural of the noun legitimate, referring collectively to people or institutions considered rightful or properly constituted.
"Several neighbouring states continued to dispute the legitimacy of the regime's legitimates."
Legitimate descends from Latin legitimus, meaning “lawful”: the word still asks whether authority is lawful.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does legitimates come from?
The form derives from legitimate, which came into English through Latin and was applied to a ruler or institution recognized as lawfully entitled. Its deeper root is the Latin legitimus, meaning “lawful,” formed from lex, “law.” English later developed legitimize, and the verb legitimates is the third-person singular form of that word; legitimacy and legitimise or legitimize are related forms from the same root.
Related word forms
How legitimates is actually used
The verb is formal and especially common in political, legal, and institutional contexts. The plural noun is comparatively uncommon and is often encountered in disputes over legitimate rulers, governments, or other authorities.
Easily confused with legitimates
Legitimate is the adjective or singular noun, while legitimates is either the third-person singular form of the verb legitimize or the plural of the noun legitimate.