illegitimacy means The state of being illegitimate. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 77 out of 100.
Why this word is great
ILLEGITIMACY — [Noun] The condition of lacking legal or social sanction, most specifically applied to birth outside lawful marriage. From illegitimate (from Latin illegitimus, from in- ("not") + legitimus ("lawful")) + the noun-forming suffix -cy. Unlike "bastardy," a stark legal brand with the bitter tang of historical disinheritance, or "illegality," a broad breach of statute, illegitimacy is a subtler, more existential negation of foundational validity. It is the cold blank space where a father's name should be on the parish register, the anxious weight of a document lacking the proper seal, and the quiet, structural flaw in a pedigree that renders a claim unsound. This is the world's formal decree that something exists without permission, its roots forever questionable and inadmissible to the record.
noun
- The state of being illegitimate.
- The state of being illegitimate.; The state of being born to parents who were not legally married to each other.