Indict

verb

verb ·2 syllables ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To accuse of wrongdoing; charge.

    "a book that indicts modern values"

  2. 2
    accuse formally of a crime wordnet
  3. 3
    To make a formal accusation or indictment for a crime against (a party) by the findings of a jury, especially a grand jury.

    "his former manager was indicted for fraud"

Synonyms

All synonyms
accriminateaccuseaccuseaccuse ofallegeanathematize

Example

More examples

"In the absence of sufficient proof, the police could not indict him."

Etymology

From Middle English enditen, endyten (“to accuse”), from Old French enditer (“to dictate, indite”), from Late Latin indictāre, frequentative of Latin indicere (“to proclaim”), from in- + dicere (“to say”), or from in- + dictāre (“to say often, to dictate”). Doublet of indite. The irregular spelling is due to the word having been borrowed into Middle English from Old French, and not from Latin as was the case with most other descendants of dictāre (but see dight). The borrowed /iː/ regularly shifted to /aɪ/ in the course of the Great Vowel Shift; the ⟨c⟩ represents a later attempt at graphic Latinisation.

Related phrases

indict a ham sandwichgrand jury

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.