Other forms: indictments
An indictment is the formal written charge that starts a serious trial. Return an indictment, face indictment, an indictment on four counts.
It is pronounced in-DITE-ment: the c is silent, and it was inserted by scribes to show the Latin origin after the word had already been borrowed with the c gone. In England, trial on indictment means trial in the Crown Court before a jury. Figuratively, an indictment is a damning judgement: an indictment of the whole system, which is the commonest use outside a courtroom.
1nounindictmentThe formal written charge that starts a serious trial.
“The grand jury returned an indictment charging him with fraud.”
2noundamningA damning judgement on something.
“The number of children living in poverty is an indictment of our society.”
indictment is a formal charge or condemnation.
Anglo-Norman enditement comes from a Latin verb meaning to declare. The English word never had a c until sixteenth-century writers put one in to match the Latin, which is why it is silent.
Latin
indictō
Anglo-Norman
enditement
Middle English
endytement — action of accusing
English, today
indictment
18th-century Latinized respelling of Middle English endytement (“action of accusing”), from Anglo-Norman enditement, from enditer, from Latin indictō, from Latin indictus.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Crime & Law