Tantamount means as good as the same thing in effect. Tantamount to an admission, tantamount to theft, tantamount to a refusal.
It always takes to, and it is the careful way to name something without accusing: saying an act is tantamount to an admission stops just short of calling it one. It comes from a phrase meaning to amount to as much.
1adjectivetantamountAs good as the same thing in effect.
“Refusing to answer the question was tantamount to admitting guilt.”
tantamount is a quality.
From Anglo-Norman tant amount, meaning to amount to as much.
Anglo-Norman
tant amount
English, today
tantamount
Built from
First attested in English in 1628. Either inherited from an unattested Middle English borrowing from Anglo-Norman tant amount, from amunter, from tant (“as much”) amonter (“to amount to”) or borrowed in the early 17th century from tanto montare (“to amount to as much”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA