legitimate

But authorities there refused to extradite him and let him go, judging that any such Ukrainian attack would have been a legitimate act of war rather than a crime.

From Barron's ● Aug. 20, 2026

"We were very sceptical, but we went online and we checked them out, and then we checked whether it was a legitimate thing through the government website," he said.

From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2026

Steven Cook, a senior fellow for Middle East issues at the Council on Foreign Relations, said Iran was pressuring Oman into the joint plan so it has the patina of a legitimate cross-strait project.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026

In 2007, the actor Felicia Day debuted “The Guild,” one of the first works, maybe the first, to demonstrate that the web could be a legitimate platform for full-blown, character-driven, narrative comedy.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026

Moreover, the threat of violence often deterred blacks from pressing legitimate claims, making the “civil rights” of former slaves largely illusory—existing on paper but rarely to be found in real life.

From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander

“But someone like Carlson is also important because he legitimates those ideas, making them seem less radical when viewers see them.”

From New York Times ● May 15, 2022

In his book Pyramids of Sacrifice, Berger writes that the "elite almost invariably legitimates its privileged position in terms of alleged benefits it is bestowing or getting ready to bestow upon 'the people.'"

From Salon ● Oct. 7, 2021

“Selling them solidifies and legitimates the selling of our trauma,” she said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 7, 2021

“When ‘winning’ becomes everything, and winning means dehumanizing the other side for short‐term gain, it legitimates increasingly extreme behavior on both sides,” Mr. Drutman said.

From Washington Times ● Nov. 5, 2020

The fast horse, then, is aesthetically fortunate, in that the canon of pecuniary good repute legitimates a free appreciation of whatever beauty or serviceability he may possess.

From Theory of the Leisure Class by Thorstein Veblen

Moreover, this attack on the welfare state and common good is increasingly legitimated and normalized through tyrannical forms of education in a variety of sites, especially in the broader cultural sphere.

From Salon ● Oct. 4, 2020

Sometimes efforts to appease racism in the electorate have deprived fascists of support; in other cases they have legitimated fascism.

From Slate ● Apr. 3, 2017

The graffiti is first; Klara’s more culturally legitimated art comes after.

From The Guardian ● Aug. 21, 2015

No. No, the only absolutely clear legacy of JFK’s slaying is that it legitimated the conspiracy theorists.

From Time ● Nov. 19, 2013

To all appearance, the political error which legitimated scarcity would have never been put an end to by them.

From Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 450 Volume 18, New Series, August 14, 1852 by Robert Chambers

When their daughter became Elizabeth I in 1558, she restored Anne’s title and Anne’s image joined the legitimating Tudor lineup that proliferated in the long galleries of Elizabethan and Jacobean England.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 22, 2026

As sociologist David Garland argues, their litigation strategy had the “unintended effect of legitimating capital punishment” and being a force for its conservation.

From Slate ● Oct. 1, 2024

"After legitimating his position in broader Israeli circles, he will proceed to the realms that not all agree on - namely the West Bank," Asa-El said.

From Reuters ● Dec. 30, 2022

But legitimating the National Prayer Breakfast was a signature achievement.

From Salon ● Feb. 10, 2020

Cæsar himself became cardinal, September 20, 1493, the stain of his birth having been removed by the Cardinals Pallavicini and Orsini, who had been charged with legitimating him.

From Lucretia Borgia According to Original Documents and Correspondence of Her Day by Ferdinand Gregorovius