# conviction

Pronunciation: say "kuhn-VIK-shuhn" /kənˈvɪk.ʃən/

## Noun

1. A belief that someone holds firmly and feels certain about.
   - Simple: A strong belief that someone feels sure is true.
   - _Her conviction that the plan would work never wavered._
   - _He defended his deepest convictions even when they cost him friends._
2. A formal decision by a court that a person is guilty of a crime.
   - Simple: A court's decision that a person is guilty of a crime.
   - _Her conviction rested entirely on circumstantial evidence._
   - _The jury delivered a conviction on all three counts._
3. The state of being completely convinced that something is true.
   - Simple: A feeling of being completely sure about something.
   - _Her voice carried a conviction that silenced the doubters._
   - _They pursued the new strategy with total conviction._
4. The condition of having been found or proved guilty of a crime.
   - Simple: The state of having been found guilty of a crime by a court.
   - _Conviction on the charge would end his political career._
   - _The defendant faced almost certain conviction given the evidence._

## 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.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/conviction (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).