allegation

UK/ˌæl.ɪˈɡeɪ.ʃən/US/ˌæl.ɪˈɡeɪ.ʃən/

nounC1Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #10,372 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: allegations

An allegation is a claim of wrongdoing made without proof yet. Deny the allegation, serious allegations, an unproven allegation.

It is the careful word journalism and law use before anything is decided, and reporting an allegation as a fact is how newspapers lose libel cases. An allegation is neither true nor false in itself: it is a claim awaiting evidence.

Definitions of allegation

1nounallegationA claim of wrongdoing made without proof yet.C1
“The police are investigating an allegation of theft against the shop manager.”

allegation is a claim.

Where it comes from

Latin allegatio comes from allegare, to send or adduce, from ad plus legare, to depute.

Latin
allegatio
Middle French
allégation
English, today
allegation

Middle French allégation, from Latin allegatio, from allegare. by surface analysis, allege + -ation, see allege.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

allegation in the wild

In 2021, Alomar was banned from baseball by MLB following an independent investigation into an allegation of sexual misconduct, dating back to 2014.
Roberto Alomar
Busfield has been accused of sexual assault against five children and three adults, with the allegations occurring once in 1994, once in 2012, and six times in 2026.
Timothy Busfield
The 2026 allegations resulted in him being arrested and also dropped by talent agency Innovative Artists.
Timothy Busfield
In law, an allegation is a claim of an unproven fact by a party in a pleading, charge, or defense.
Allegation
Until they can be proved, allegations remain merely assertions.
Allegation

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

allege

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