legitimize

In the ancient Near East, the image of God was used to legitimize power of the divinity of kings.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026

Ng’s presence, first as an adviser and starting last season as commissioner, is helping legitimize the new league.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 8, 2026

Since then, the company has worked to legitimize itself further.

From Barron's ● May 27, 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

“When I want mountains made out of molehills, when I want to legitimize their puerile actions by paying attention to them, I’ll let you know.”

From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols

The diplomatic source stressed that Russia's G20 presence "in no way legitimizes its actions."

From Barron's ● Oct. 30, 2026

“Having the same last name legitimizes our family status it seems,” Glatzel said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 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

“Today’s announcement by President Sandu legitimizes the narrative that Moldova needs to focus on its security,” he told The Associated Press.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 13, 2023

In Scotland the marriage of the mother with the father legitimizes the child.

From Women's Wild Oats Essays on the Re-fixing of Moral Standards by C. Gasquoine (Catherine Gasquoine) Hartley

That victory made the Myanmar native a champion questioned by some, but Van legitimized his reign by prevailing in a grueling battle against Tatsuro Taira last May, stopping his challenger in the final round.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2026

It was the centerpiece of a landmark Disney deal, which legitimized artificial intelligence for Hollywood royalty.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 29, 2026

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

Lincoln had to step gingerly, for a declaration of war against his own people was loathsome but more importantly would have legitimized the Confederacy as a nation able to establish diplomatic ties internationally.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 30, 2024

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

Rather than serving as "an impartial chronographic work," the researchers suggest it may instead have functioned as "a legitimizing canon of kings, which was periodically updated to remove short-lived or parallel Neo-Assyrian rulers."

From Science Daily ● Aug. 26, 2026

The French historian Ernest Renan identified the tension between a nation-state’s need for a legitimizing narrative and the often ugly truths of its actual past.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 1, 2026

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

From Slate ● Jul. 8, 2025

With their followers losing faith, Jeff and Shaleia needed a way to keep them in the labyrinth; hence, a new mythology legitimizing their supposedly divinely mandated matchmaking.

From Salon ● Nov. 11, 2023

And so his texts played a decisive role in legitimizing the new post-Kuhnian history of science because they were wrongly read as endorsing a thoroughgoing relativism.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton