legitimize

They appeared on “The Tonight Show” and “The Carol Burnett Show,” and were among the first crews to legitimize the art form by making a living from it.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026

But even that conversation appears to legitimize the entire fund, as if within these “victims,” there’s a class of people that should not be compensated, but within the greater class, there are people who should?

From Slate ● May 26, 2026

Making the case to other nations helps legitimize the mission and its necessity.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 18, 2026

The U.K.’s pledge to build bigger, better quantum computers can be seen as an effort to legitimize the technology.

From Barron's ● Mar. 17, 2026

Many Eurasian states and empires had official religions that contributed to state cohesion, being invoked to legitimize the political leadership and to sanction wars against other peoples.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

“It definitely legitimizes the entire space when you have the world’s largest and arguably one of the most important companies dropping this,” Wedbush’s Legault said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 27, 2026

It argued that the web designer’s victory in that case legitimizes the termination of a female counselor who is married to another woman due to the high school’s freedom of speech.

From Slate ● Jul. 25, 2023

“I think having them call me in and put me on the stand legitimizes my story and who I am,” she said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 6, 2023

This legitimizes their adultification: Carl Grimes quickly becomes his father's backup on "The Walking Dead."

From Salon ● Mar. 6, 2023

However stupid, bad or wicked a man may have been, if he is only rude into the bargain, he condones and legitimizes all his faults.

From The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer: the Wisdom of Life by T. Bailey (Thomas Bailey) Saunders

“StubHub legitimized a business that had historically been run by bad actors,” said Randy Nichols, an artist manager and music-industry consultant.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026

Some opposed the measure, though, arguing it legitimized illegal businesses and could give the city a reason to keep them around.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 4, 2026

A genre as wide-reaching and weird as this one doesn’t need golden statues to be legitimized.

From Salon ● Oct. 23, 2025

The court is where these ideas are hatched, and it is legitimized in ways that allow Miller to go all out, 110 percent, every time.

From Slate ● Sep. 29, 2025

The fact that he seemed scared of the lady he had met in the woods legitimized his story a lot.

From "Fablehaven" by Brandon Mull

He’s legitimizing its use as psychological scaffolding, which allows a person’s cognitive development to be left perpetually unfinished.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 2, 2026

But conciliation carries the risk of legitimizing the court’s most indefensible actions.

From Slate ● Jul. 8, 2025

In their eyes, it's "legitimizing everything Doug Wilson is saying and doing."

From Salon ● Dec. 3, 2024

“The international community must approach engagement in Cambodia with enhanced due diligence to avoid unwittingly legitimizing its most pernicious actors,” said J. Daniel Sims, a transnational crime expert at the United States Institute of Peace.

From Seattle Times ● May 1, 2024

The discovery of America was crucial in legitimizing innovation because within forty years no one disputed that it really was an unprecedented event, and one that could not be ignored.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton