Treason

//ˈtɹiː.zən// noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The crime of betraying one’s own country. countable, uncountable

    "Treaſon doth never [pro]ſper: what's the reaſon? / For yf yt [pro]ſper none dare call yt treaſon"

  2. 2
    an act of deliberate betrayal wordnet
  3. 3
    An act of treachery, betrayal of trust or confidence. countable, uncountable
  4. 4
    a crime that undermines the offender's government wordnet
  5. 5
    disloyalty by virtue of subversive behavior wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
perfidytreacherybetrayalbetrayalperfidiousnessperfidy

Example

More examples

"He was banished to an island for high treason."

Etymology

From Middle English tresoun, treison, from Anglo-Norman treson, from Old French traïson (“treason”), from trair, or from Latin trāditiō (“a giving up, handing over, surrender, delivery, tradition”), from trādō (“give up, hand over, deliver over, betray”, verb), from trāns- (“over, across”) + dō (“give”). Doublet of tradition.

Related phrases

constructive treasonhigh treasonpetit treasonpetty treason

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