to make something legal or acceptable:
The government fears that talking to terrorists might legitimize their violent actions.
Synonym
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Meaning of legitimize in English
(Definition of legitimize from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)
legitimize | American Dictionary
to make something legal or acceptable
legitimize | Business English
He called efforts to legitimize medical marijuana "despicable".
Examples of legitimize
legitimize
Models help fill that gap, and thereby legitimize the continuation of work on theory.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Some also thought that the new training and legislation merely legitimize current practice, filling gaps in the medical workforce.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
They also sent reverberations through the officer corps and the soldiery, damaging confidence among some and legitimizing the desire for revenge among others.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
His social and political power was partly dependent upon his position as a paternalist and philanthropist, a position he frequently used to legitimize his candidatures.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
In other words, the possibility of describing certain choral compositions almost as pre-existent music provided a solution to the aesthetic problem of legitimizing the chorus.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
His evaluation of the pervasive cultural resonance of his subjects is legitimized by histories of contemporaneous cultural institutions and comparable popular entertainers.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Both a king's self and his person had to be legitimized in ancient civilizations.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
This report came to play a decisive role for the new government in its need to formulate and legitimize a new course of development policy.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
In the case of participants, the discourse has served to legitimize those linked to the environmental and traditional indigenous foci.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
In particular, the role of political parties as legitimizing agents during periods of rapid economic and social change, is crucial.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
In his view all bureaucracies conceal certain kinds of politics and legitimize certain kinds of power relationships in their day-to-day operations.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Instead, he legitimizes his dream scenes by presenting a biographical narrative explaining the crime.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
There are many who are critical of the ability of majoritarian institutions to legitimize decisions of the state.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Rather, the second clause is presented as a factor which legitimizes the speaker's making the speech act of an offer.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Rather, the concern has been to show how a monarchical and autocratic regime manifested and legitimized itself in the public sphere.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.
