conviction
Pluralconvictions
- 1A belief that someone holds firmly and feels certain about.
Her conviction that the plan would work never wavered.
He defended his deepest convictions even when they cost him friends.
Similarbelief, certainty, principle, view, opinion
Oppositedoubt
Note
The sense that takes a plural: a person holds convictions the way they hold opinions, only more firmly. Hayek pairs the plural with knowledge: "his own knowledge and convictions." The word came through Anglo-Norman from Latin convictiō, built on convincō, "to convict." A settled belief and a guilty verdict therefore share one root, and the word still reads as convict + -ion.
- 2A formal decision by a court that a person is guilty of a crime.
Her conviction rested entirely on circumstantial evidence.
The jury delivered a conviction on all three counts.
Oppositeacquittal
Note
A court's judgment is something you can count, so a criminal record is measured in convictions. A news report notes that a defendant "had no previous convictions." A conviction usually follows a jury verdict or a guilty plea and comes before sentencing. Conviction and sentence are separate steps, and a reader should not merge them.
- 3The state of being completely convinced that something is true.
Her voice carried a conviction that silenced the doubters.
They pursued the new strategy with total conviction.
Similarcertainty, confidence, assurance, certitude, sureness
Oppositedoubt, uncertainty, hesitancy
Note
Here the word names a quality of manner rather than a particular belief, and it takes no plural. Coleridge sets it against illustration: analogies aid conviction, while metaphors merely illustrate. A sports report praises a side that "played with great conviction." Unlike a firmly held belief, it usually appears without an article: you act with conviction, not with a conviction.
- 4The condition of having been found or proved guilty of a crime.
Conviction on the charge would end his political career.
The defendant faced almost certain conviction given the evidence.
Oppositeacquittal
Note
Legal prose uses this sense without an article, in fixed patterns: conviction of an offense, or fines collected on conviction. It names a status rather than the single court judgment. That status is what carries further consequences. A 1943 House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization hearing ties forfeiture of citizenship to conviction of treason or wartime desertion.
Practice
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Origin
This word came into late Middle English from Anglo-Norman conviction, which came from Latin convictiō, from convictus, the past participle of convincō ("to convict"). It is equivalent to convict plus the suffix -ion.