How to Use illegitimacy in a Sentence

illegitimacy

noun
  • That fear of one man’s courage testifies to the illegitimacy of their power.
    — The Editorial Board, WSJ, 13 July 2017
  • The Democrats sought to fire up their voters by highlighting the illegitimacy of the process.
    — Jane Mayer, The New Yorker, 10 Dec. 2020
  • The illegitimacy of Rhaenyra's sons seems to be an open secret in the Red Keep.
    — Chelsey Sanchez, Harper's BAZAAR, 26 Sep. 2022
  • His confirmation process will have the whiff of illegitimacy, which Democrats will attempt to use to keep him off the court.
    — Mark Joseph Stern, Slate Magazine, 31 Jan. 2017
  • In these regions, illegitimacy rates could rise as high as 25%, compared to a norm of below 5%.
    — James Belich, Fortune, 22 Jan. 2023
  • But, because of its illegitimacy, there was little remorse in spending it.
    — Joseph Lezza, Longreads, 30 Mar. 2023
  • Corlys stands by Rhaenyra, regardless of the illegitimacy of the children.
    — Josh St. Clair, Men's Health, 3 Oct. 2022
  • Throughout James Smithson’s life, his illegitimacy lingered like a bad stain that nothing could wash away.
    — Christoph Irmscher, WSJ, 23 Oct. 2020
  • This year’s pronouncements arrive shadowed by melancholy and, even more than usual, a vague illegitimacy.
    — Katy Waldman, The New Yorker, 17 Dec. 2020
  • Bonds’s connection to PEDs has cast a shadow of illegitimacy over his achievements in the eyes of many.
    — Jared Diamond, WSJ, 11 Sep. 2017
  • But either way, the cloud of illegitimacy hanging over Kavanaugh’s head will be helpful in waking the public from its slumber.
    — Matthew Yglesias, Vox, 5 Oct. 2018
  • By the time Eileen was born, the matter of illegitimacy was a permanent social anxiety.
    — Literary Hub, 8 May 2026
  • If illegitimacy was framed in such a fashion, concerns over the dynamic might gain some Left-liberal support.
    — Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 1 Apr. 2012
  • Laws preventing adoptees from accessing their birth certificates were designed to protect both the birth parent and the child from stigma of illegitimacy.
    — Daniela Altimari, courant.com, 31 May 2021
  • Scalia’s focus on the court’s illegitimacy in these dissents is part of the conservative legal movement’s worldview, not a departure from it.
    — Matt Ford, The New Republic, 10 May 2023
  • An air of illegitimacy, particularly in the face of febrile nationalism, will undermine the new rulers.
    — Eliot A. Cohen, The Atlantic, 4 Jan. 2026
  • Instead, events appear to lie in political opportunism in the wake of an election marred by flaws and allegations of illegitimacy.
    — John Joseph Chin, The Conversation, 1 Dec. 2025
  • Calderón, also facing charges of illegitimacy from the left, deployed Mexico’s federal forces en masse and captured and killed dozens of kingpins.
    — Benjamin Lessing, Washington Post, 2 Mar. 2018
  • What if we were born today — when society allows unwed mothers greater latitude to choose to raise their children, when the stigma of illegitimacy has subsided?
    — Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 8 Mar. 2018
  • Despite the onus of his illegitimacy, Smithson prospered as a chemist and mineralogist.
    — Alice George, Smithsonian Magazine, 10 Aug. 2021
  • The government cannot pass judgment upon or presuppose the illegitimacy of religious beliefs and practices.
    — Tara Law, Time, 8 Oct. 2019
  • The wider disbelief morphed into anger and wild theories to explain or create the illegitimacy of the 45th president.
    — Andrew Malcolm, San Francisco Chronicle, 26 Apr. 2018
  • Such a move would merely have created a new kind of illegitimacy that penalized Azerbaijan and the Azerbaijanis who lived in and around the enclave.
    — Thomas De Waal, Foreign Affairs, 26 Oct. 2020
  • But by the time Emily stood on the football field in a sparkling silver dress waiting to accept her crown, whispers had already begun spreading among the student body about the illegitimacy of her victory.
    — Sarah Midkiff, refinery29.com, 17 Mar. 2021
  • Inside casinos and racetracks and increasingly on mobile phones bettors can back their favorite teams with a few dollars — and do it without the shadow of illegitimacy the activity had in the past.
    — San Diego Union-Tribune, 7 Oct. 2019
  • Zawahiri, during what proved to be the last months of his life, again emphasized the illegitimacy of the international system that Taliban leaders now seek to cultivate.
    — Steve Coll, The New Yorker, 2 Aug. 2022
  • This may persist in the perception that the Biden administration is now continually under the cloud of illegitimacy.
    — WSJ, 11 Dec. 2020
  • The word coup, which by definition carries the connotation of illegitimacy, has a long history of being politicized, not only in the United States.
    — Washington Post, 2 Oct. 2019
  • At the time of writing, over 168 charges have been outright dismissed by prosecutors before even attempting to extract pleas or go to trial, evidencing the illegitimacy of these charges in the first place.
    — Natasha Lennard, Esquire, 19 Sep. 2017
  • Staying in 📖 Latina comedian Aida Rodriguez tackles the shame of ‘illegitimacy’ in a new memoir.
    — Ryan Fonseca, Los Angeles Times, 17 Oct. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'illegitimacy.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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