indictment
Pluralindictments
- 1A formal, official accusation that a person has committed a crime, or the legal process of bringing that charge before a jury.
Federal prosecutors secured an indictment on charges of fraud and money laundering.
The case proceeded to indictment after the grand jury reviewed the evidence.
Similarcharge, accusation
Note
The courtroom core of the word, and the reason it is spelled the way it is. Middle English had endytement, from Anglo-Norman enditement, and the c is an 18th-century Latinizing respelling modeled on Latin indictus. Prosecutors secure or obtain an indictment, typically returned by a grand jury on a finding of probable cause. As a mass noun it names the stage itself, as in a case that proceeds to indictment.
- 2An accusation that someone or something has done wrong; a sharp criticism or condemnation.
The documentary stands as a damning indictment of factory farming practices.
Critics read the novel as an indictment of unchecked ambition.
Similarcondemnation, criticism, denunciation, censure
Oppositeendorsement, praise
Note
Outside the courtroom the word keeps the weight of a formal charge, which is why it rarely travels without an intensifier: damning, shocking, frightening, greater. It usually takes of, as in a frightening indictment of bureaucratic sloppiness. Emma Goldman, writing in 1910, has an indictment against patriotism instead, a phrasing that stays closer to the legal language of bringing a charge against someone.
- 3A fact or outcome that serves as evidence of failure or poor performance, exposing how badly something has gone.
The bridge collapse was a stark indictment of decades of underfunding.
Rising dropout rates are an indictment of how the reforms were implemented.
Similarcondemnation
Oppositevindication
Note
Here nobody does the accusing; the facts themselves make the charge. What follows of is usually a capacity or a record of performance, as in an indictment of his ability to lead or of his game. The difference from the critic's condemnation is who condemns. In that sense a person passes judgment, while in this one the result or outcome does it alone.
- 4The official legal document that sets out the specific charges brought against the accused; a bill of indictment.
The indictment ran to forty pages and detailed each alleged offense.
Prosecutors filed the indictment with the clerk of the court.
Note
Here the word names the paper rather than the act of charging described in the formal accusation. A document can be filed, sealed and later unsealed, so a sealed indictment can stay hidden until the arraignment, when its charges are formally revealed. The fuller name, bill of indictment, comes from the older practice of presenting the draft to a grand jury for its endorsement.
Practice
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Origin
An 18th-century Latinized respelling of Middle English endytement ("action of accusing"), which came through Anglo-Norman enditement and enditer from Late Latin indictāre, ultimately from Latin indictus.