indict
Americanverb (used with object)
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indicts,
present (3rd person singular)
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indicted,
past participle, past
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indicting
present participle
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Law. (of a grand jury) to bring a formal accusation against (someone) as a means of bringing a case to trial after ascertaining that there is enough evidence.
The grand jury indicted him for murder.
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to charge with an offense or crime; accuse of wrongdoing; incriminate; condemn.
He tends to indict everyone of plotting against him.
verb
Usage
What does indict mean? To indict someone is to officially charge them with a crime that will be the subject of a criminal trial. Indicting a suspect is the final step in the evidence-gathering process before a person is put on trial for a serious crime, especially a felony. The official announcement of this accusation is called an indictment. In the U. S., such indictments are presented by a grand jury—the group of people responsible for determining whether there is enough evidence of a crime for a suspect to be put on trial. Indict can also be used in a more general way, outside of a legal context, to mean to accuse or strongly criticize, or to reveal something as being deserving of criticism. The noun indictment can also be used in this more general sense. Example: The suspect has been indicted for armed robbery and will face trial next month.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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indictsimple
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indictssimple
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have indictedperfect
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has indictedperfect
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am indictingprogressive
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are indictingprogressive
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is indictingprogressive
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have been indictingperfect progressive
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has been indictingperfect progressive
Past
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indictedsimple
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had indictedperfect
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was indictingprogressive
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were indictingprogressive
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had been indictingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of indict
First recorded in 1620–30; variant spelling (from Medieval Latin ) of indite
Explanation
If you accuse someone of committing an offense, you indict them. A book that indicts the entire education system might lay out all the reasons that schools are failing kids. In a legal sense, the verb indict means to bring formal charges against someone, especially in a court of law, as in a federal grand jury. The grand jury indicted, the man on 12 counts of murder. Although it's true the boy had stolen cookies from the cookie jar in the past, that is no reason to indict him out of hand in the present case. There were no witnesses and the crumb evidence would suggest someone else committed the crime.
Vocabulary lists containing indict
You Can Say That Again: Dic and Dict
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Fast Food Nation
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The Hate U Give
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
This means there could be "no grounds justifying the decision not to indict Mr Abdalmasih Hanoun".
From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the U.S. began to indict Russian oligarchs and seize yachts and other assets.
From Salon ● Sep. 14, 2026
Police will be ready to submit the case to prosecutors by Friday, according to Anek, who noted that the deadline for them to indict Carman was 18 September.
From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026
She added that prosecutors also didn’t inform the defense that the grand jury initially declined to indict the group that became known as the Broadview Six.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 2026
In other words, the grand jury had decided not to indict the officers.
From "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing" by Ted Conover
In “Violent Saviors” Mr. Easterly indicts an idea he calls “the Development Right of Conquest”—quite the mouthful—which “confers the right to conquer lands on those who bring material progress to these lands.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 7, 2025
Interview by interview, what at first appears to be a murder mystery unravels into a story of class, intrigue and small-town social mobility that ultimately indicts the entire community.
From New York Times ● Apr. 7, 2023
May 7 — Federal grand jury indicts Chauvin, Lane, Kueng and Thao on civil rights charges.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 19, 2022
But then, in a gut-punch of a turn, Anderson also collectively indicts us for how we remember King.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 29, 2021
He is the kind of fellow that one instinctively indicts without hearing testimony.
From The Siege of the Seven Suitors by Meredith Nicholson
A former salesperson for aircraft maintenance company BizJet International pleaded guilty to bribing foreign officials in Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America, concluding a long-running bribery case first indicted in 2012.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 2, 2026
On 19 October 2026, a grand jury in Nebraska indicted Mogambi on five counts of theft of government money and five counts of aggravated identity theft.
From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2026
In May 2025, a grand jury indicted Owens on one count of fraudulent schemes, one count of forgery, four counts of perjury and one count of tampering with physical evidence in Echard’s case.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 26, 2026
More recently, The Wall Street Journal reported that Paxton spent New Year's Eve in Dubai with two American businessmen indicted over alleged healthcare fraud.
From Barron's ● Oct. 19, 2026
Despite what some saw as the transparent falsity of the charges, Osborne was indicted by a Westchester grand jury.
From "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing" by Ted Conover
The hit man’s quest to track down nursing mothers lends “Your Mother” a peculiar but propulsive forward momentum while neatly indicting the macho stereotypes that usually accompany such action movies.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026
Richarlison, who saw a deadline day move to Everton breakdown, is understood to be exploring his options with sources indicting the 29-year-old is keen to be released from the remainder of his deal.
From BBC ● Sep. 10, 2026
“Britannia rules the waves” encapsulated Great Britain’s command of the seas in a bygone era, but it’s now an empty slogan indicting the British navy’s decline.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 6, 2026
Where a portion of the public has gone terribly wrong is in indicting the people who have no control over saying it.
From Salon ● Mar. 1, 2026
These are pretty nearly all the eminent actions of Cato, relating to military affairs: in civil policy, he was of opinion, that one chief duty consisted in accusing and indicting criminals.
From Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans by Arthur Hugh Clough
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
