capital punishment

American  

[kap-i-tl puhn-ish-muhnt] / ˈkæp ɪ tl ˈpʌn ɪʃ mənt /

noun

1. punishment by death for a crime; death penalty.

---

capital punishment British  

noun

1. the punishment of death for a crime; death penalty

---

capital punishment ¹ Cultural  

1. The death penalty for a crime.

---

capital punishment ² Cultural  

1. The infliction of the death penalty as punishment for certain crimes. (See capital offense.)

---

Discover More

In the United States, capital punishment has been an extremely controversial issue on legal, moral, and ethical grounds. In 1972, the Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty was not, in principle, cruel and unusual punishment (and not, therefore, unconstitutional), but that its implementation through existing state laws was unconstitutional. In 1976, the Supreme Court again ruled that the death penalty was not unconstitutional, though a mandatory death penalty for any crime was. Thirty-nine states now practice the death penalty.

Etymology

Origin of capital punishment

First recorded in 1575–85

Example Sentences

Smith, a dispute over capital punishment that was poised to be one of the most important cases of the term.

From Slate • May 23, 2026

Nathan Hochman has not said when prosecutors will make a decision about seeking capital punishment.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 29, 2026

The Court had in prior decades issued many emergency orders in election and capital punishment cases.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 24, 2026

South Korea has an unofficial moratorium on capital punishment, with the last prisoners executed in 1997.

From Barron's • Feb. 20, 2026

Even though capital punishment quadrupled within a decade, there were still only 478 executions in the entire United States during the 1990s.

From "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" by Steven D. Levitt