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premeditation

UK/ˌpɹiː.mɛ.dɪˈteɪ.ʃən/US/ˌpɹiː.mɛ.dɪˈteɪ.ʃən/
nounC1Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #11,738 of 15,258leans spoken

Premeditation is the planning of an act, especially a crime, in advance. Evidence of premeditation, with premeditation, a lack of premeditation.

It is what separates murder from manslaughter in many legal systems, and finding it turns a killing into the gravest charge available. The evidence is usually a purchase or a search made beforehand.

Definitions of premeditation

  1. 1nounpremeditationThe planning of an act, especially a crime, in advance.C1

    “The jury decided there was no premeditation; he had acted in a sudden rage.”

premeditation is a planning.

Where it comes from

  1. Latin

    praemeditātiō

  2. English, today

    premeditation

Learned borrowing from Latin praemeditātiō.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

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premeditation in the wild

  • The speech, the third in the modern Lysianic corpus, concerns a case of "wounding with premeditation" or with the intention to commit murder.

    Against Simon

  • Because lying in wait involves premeditation, some jurisdictions have established that lying in wait is considered an aggravating circumstance that allows for the imposition of harsher criminal penalties.

    Lying in wait

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.