indict
Verb
Verb Forms: indicted, indicting, indicts
- To formally accuse someone of a serious crime.
- accuse formally of a crime
- To accuse of wrongdoing; charge.
- To make a formal accusation or indictment for a crime against (a party) by the findings of a jury, especially a grand jury.
Examples
- a book that indicts modern values
- his former manager was indicted for fraud
- His opponent threatened to indict him for taking too long on his turn.
Origin / 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.
Scrabble Score: 9
indict: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordindict: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
indict: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary