legitimating
- 1Present participle and gerund of legitimate.
The new government spent its first year legitimating its authority in the eyes of foreign powers.
Critics accused the broadcaster of legitimating extremist views by giving them regular airtime.
Note
Every use of this form is the verb at work, never the adjective that shares its base spelling: legitimating means conferring legitimacy, not having it. The verb is transitive, so an object follows: legitimating a claim, an authority, a regime. As a gerund it can head a noun phrase (the legitimating of state authority). The legal use survives too: legitimating a child put them in the position of one lawfully begotten.
legitimating is a form of legitimate
legitimate, verb: To make something lawful or valid, especially to give a person the legal status of one born within marriage. Full entry
- Forms
- legitimatelegitimates he/she/itlegitimating -ing formlegitimated past tense, past participle
- Spelling
- legitimate → legitimating: drop the e, add -ing
Use it in a sentence
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