Other forms: convictions
A conviction is a court's formal finding that a person is guilty. A previous conviction, quash the conviction, a conviction for fraud.
It stays on record and affects employment, travel and sentencing for later offences. Spent convictions are ones old enough that they need not be declared. A wrongful conviction is one later overturned. The other sense is a firmly held belief — a woman of strong convictions, it is my conviction that — and with conviction means saying something as if you mean it, which is what actors and politicians are judged on.
1nounconvictionA court's formal finding that somebody is guilty.
“Her conviction for fraud meant she could never work in a bank again.”
2nounfirmlyA firmly held belief.
“It is her conviction that none of it was an accident.”
conviction is a finding or belief.
Latin convictio comes from convincere, to prove wrong or overcome. Convince and convict are one verb, so a conviction in court and a conviction in the mind are both states of having been thoroughly persuaded.
Proto-Indo-European
*weyk-
Latin
convictiō
Anglo-Norman
conviction
Middle English
conviction
English, today
conviction
Built from
From late Middle English conviction, from Anglo-Norman conviction, from Latin convictiō, from convictus, the past participle of convincō (“to convict”). Equivalent to convict + ion.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA