How to Use illegitimate in a Sentence

illegitimate

adjective
  • They were fired from their jobs for illegitimate reasons.
  • Even if all those ballots proved to be illegitimate, that would be nowhere near enough votes to swing the election to Trump.
    San Diego Union-Tribune, 9 Jan. 2022
  • Biden sought safeguards against illegitimate outcomes in elections to come.
    John Harwood, CNN, 23 Jan. 2022
  • The Charlottesville lawsuit is the third to argue the order is illegitimate.
    Washington Post, 1 Feb. 2022
  • Both consider Israel illegitimate and their conflict with it to be holy and existential.
    Tribune News Service, The Mercury News, 28 June 2024
  • In 2016, half of America viewed that as an illegitimate result.
    Washington Post Live, Washington Post, 17 July 2024
  • In the view of some lawyers, this statute could apply to almost any illegitimate action Trump took to change the outcome of the election.
    Doyle McManus, Los Angeles Times, 23 July 2023
  • As the auction gets more buzz, Fisher has become wary, worried that some of the bids are illegitimate or were put in as jokes.
    Praveena Somasundaram, Washington Post, 3 Aug. 2023
  • Kari Lake has claimed for weeks that her loss in the race for Arizona governor was illegitimate.
    Jonathan J. Cooper and, BostonGlobe.com, 21 Dec. 2022
  • And Chief Justice Roberts wonders why the current court is seen by many as an illegitimate farce.
    Staff Report, Hartford Courant, 5 Jan. 2024
  • Paul has flashed some highlights with swift knockouts in four of those wins, but many still view him as an illegitimate boxer.
    Kris Rhim, New York Times, 28 Oct. 2022
  • The Kapp Putsch, or coup, in 1920 tried but failed to overthrow the government in Berlin, which its supporters saw as illegitimate.
    Patrick Smith, NBC News, 8 Dec. 2022
  • Trump worked hard in each of those instances to degrade and invalidate the process, to treat them as illegitimate in order to blunt the findings.
    Nicole Hemmer, CNN, 4 Apr. 2023
  • Vaemond made his case — a strong one, as so long as people believed and agreed that Rhaenyra and Laenor's children were illegitimate.
    Ryan Parker, Peoplemag, 9 Oct. 2022
  • Because Charles’ children were all illegitimate, his younger brother, the Catholic James, was his sole heir.
    Meilan Solly, Smithsonian Magazine, 14 June 2022
  • Cleese has since revealed that the series will be set in the Caribbean where Basil Fawlty moves to, to be with his illegitimate daughter.
    Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 2 May 2024
  • What’s not protected is acting as if the election were therefore illegitimate, like to say that Joe Biden is not the President, so the laws don’t bind me.
    Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker, 19 Oct. 2022
  • There may well be sexist motives behind some of these demands, but that doesn't mean that each and every one of them is illegitimate.
    Jill Filipovic, CNN, 8 June 2022
  • Earlier this year, Charles Vandervaart joined the cast as the adult version of William, Jamie's illegitimate son.
    Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 28 June 2022
  • The boycott resulted in an extremely low turnout of 3.5%, leading many in the West to claim the elections were indeed illegitimate.
    Chris Massaro, Fox News, 2 June 2023
  • Has led to the false belief that the presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump and that Joe Biden’s election was illegitimate.
    Laura Johnston, cleveland, 7 Nov. 2022
  • Lee Jun-young’s character Kang In-ha is the illegitimate son of a conglomerate head.
    Joan MacDonald, Forbes, 29 Feb. 2024
  • Johnsen said that Allan was pulled over for driving with an illegitimate license plate.
    Adam Sabes, Fox News, 4 Mar. 2023
  • The fear for many Haitians is any elections held under Henry's leadership will be seen as illegitimate.
    Matt Rivers, ABC News, 31 July 2023
  • Having already declared the princes illegitimate, Richard paved the way for his ascent to the throne as Edward IV’s next legitimate heir.
    Meilan Solly, Smithsonian Magazine, 23 Mar. 2023
  • For example, Cromwell may have had an illegitimate daughter in life, not in fiction.
    Hillary Kelly, Vulture, 23 Sep. 2022
  • The four-part adaptation of Henry Fielding’s novel of the same name will be a new twist on the story following an illegitimate young man’s love for a beautiful heiress.
    Breanna Bell, Variety, 17 Jan. 2023
  • Paul was at the Capitol that day and condemned the deadly attack, which was fueled by lies that President Joe Biden's election was illegitimate.
    Morgan Watkins, The Courier-Journal, 5 Oct. 2022
  • At the time, the two rappers were feuding after Pusha T released a diss track accusing Drake of fathering an illegitimate child.
    Julia Moore, Peoplemag, 5 Dec. 2022
  • The scammer’s goal, Ruden said, is to launder the proceeds of illegitimate activities.
    Jon Healey, Los Angeles Times, 17 Sep. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'illegitimate.' 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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