On balance, every leader and most legislators can walk away from this year's session feeling that they've done serious work and that they can legitimately call themselves reformers.

But recent leads and advanced new research techniques have opened promising areas that sooner or later could produce what doctors might legitimately call breakthroughs.

"As long as we can legitimately call on G.P.'s and access the population they treat, the sales of the drug will be larger," he said on a conference call.

But I also wanted John in a place where I could legitimately call a doctor for him, if the need arose.

"No society can legitimately call itself civilized if a sick person is denied medical aid because of lack of means," he declared.

These are not fantasies of a dead, romantic past, but, rather, the simple truth for those who, today, alone can legitimately call themselves alive.

In addition to singing and playing the piano, now I could legitimately call myself a writer.

A lifetime away from small-town Mexico and the California orchards of his childhood, Vicente Medina can now legitimately call himself a Park Avenue restaurateur.

How can we, in this House, legitimately call for more ambition with regard to the environment?

We may legitimately call a dog 'a dog', 'a mammal' or 'an animal' in different contexts.