From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Legitimacy \Le*git"i*ma*cy\ (-[i^]*m[.a]*s[y^]), noun [See {Legitimate}, adjective] The state, or quality, of being legitimate, or in conformity with law; hence, the condition of having been lawfully begotten, or born in wedlock.
The doctrine of Divine Right, which has now come back to us, like a thief from transportation, under the alias of Legitimacy. --Macaulay.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
legitimacy
noun
1: lawfulness by virtue of being authorized or in accordance with law [ant: {illegitimacy}]
2: undisputed credibility [syn: {authenticity}, {genuineness}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
89 Moby Thesaurus words for "legitimacy": absolute power, absolute realism, absolutism, actionability, admissibility, admissibleness, allowableness, applicability, artlessness, authenticity, authority, bona fideness, competence, competency, constituted authority, constitutional validity, constitutionalism, constitutionality, defensibility, delegated authority, divine right, due process, excusability, explainability, explicability, faculty, forgivableness, genuineness, honesty, inartificiality, indirect authority, inherent authority, jurisdiction, jus divinum, justice, justiciability, justifiability, justifiableness, lawful authority, lawfulness, legal authority, legal form, legal process, legalism, legality, legitimateness, licitness, lifelikeness, literalism, literality, literalness, naturalism, naturalness, pardonableness, permissibility, permissibleness, photographic realism, power, prerogative, realism, realness, reasonability, reasonableness, regality, remissibility, right, rightful authority, rightfulness, royal prerogative, sanctionableness, scope, sincerity, the say, the say-so, true-to-lifeness, truth to nature, unadulteration, unaffectedness, unfictitiousness, unspeciousness, unspuriousness, unsyntheticness, validity, veniality, verisimilitude, vested authority, vicarious authority, vindicability, warrantableness
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