Synonyms for illegitimate
- adjective
- noun
Synonyms by meaning
Adjective
1. Spurious — not authorized by good usage; not genuine
misbegotten, bogus, false, fake, falsified, sham, phony informal US, phoney UK, counterfeit, artificial, pseudo, ersatz, synthetic, unreal, feigned, mock, unauthentic, bastardly, ingenuine, fictitious, pretended, forged, spurious dated
2. Illegal — not in accordance with the law
illegal, unlawful, illicit, outlawed, wrongful, extra-marital, improper, unauthorized, unauthorised UK, criminal, disallowed
Other
Noun
bastard, love child, natural child, by-blow slang, whoreson dated
Definitions
- adj. 1
Not in accordance with the law.
- adj. 2
Not correctly deduced.
an illegitimate inference
- adj. 3
Not authorized by good usage; not genuine.
- n. 1
A person born to unmarried parents.
Related words
- Word family
- illegitimacy illegitimately illegitimatize illegitimize
Forms
- Plural
- illegitimates → bastards, by-blows, whoresons…
Example sentences
- fake Many consumer reviews of books on Amazon are fake.
- bogus Sami opened a bank account with a bogus Egyptian ID.
- falsified They falsified the account balances to evade the tax.
- misbegotten Voters may yet reject the misbegotten 'Dream Act'.
- illegal Do you think that handguns should be made illegal?
- unlawful You have a duty not to comply with an unlawful order.
Popularity over time
| Word | 1850 → 2019 | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| illegitimate | steady | |
| fake | rising | |
| bogus | rising | |
| falsified | steady | |
| misbegotten | rising | |
| illegal | steady |
Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.
By length
- 4 letters
- fake1, mock1, sham1
- 5 letters
- false1, bogus2, phony2
- 6 letters
- forged1, pseudo2, unreal2, phoney2, ersatz2
- 7 letters
- natural3, illegal3, bastard2, invalid3, illicit3, feigned1
- 8 letters
- criminal3, unlawful3, improper3, wrongful2, outlawed2, spurious3, whoreson
- 9 letters
- synthetic3, pretended3, illogical4, falsified3, bastardly, ingenuine
- 10 letters
- artificial4, fictitious3, disallowed3, fatherless3, adulterine
- 11 letters
- counterfeit3, misbegotten4, unauthentic4
- 12 letters
- unauthorized4, unauthorised
The small number after each word is its number of syllables (bogus2 = 2 syllables).
In other languages
- Français
- illégitime
- Italiano
- illegittimo
- Español
- ilegítimo
- Deutsch
- unrechtmäßig
- Català
- il·legítim