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extraordinary rendition

American  

noun

  1. secret or forcible rendition of a suspected criminal to another country, often a country known to violate human rights and due process of law.

    the CIA’s extraordinary rendition of terrorist suspects;

    The legality and morality of extraordinary rendition have been a matter of intense debate.


extraordinary rendition British  

noun

  1. the process by which a country seizes a person assumed to be involved in terrorist activity and then transports him or her for interrogation to a country where due process of law is unlikely to be respected

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of extraordinary rendition

First recorded in 1980–85

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.

Even during wartime, things like kidnapping and extraordinary rendition violate U.S. law, the Geneva Conventions, and other international humanitarian treaties to which the U.S. is a signatory.

From Salon • May 6, 2025

Kingsley Kanu's lawyers argue that Britain's Foreign Office should reach "a firm, rather than provisional, view" on whether his brother was the victim of extraordinary rendition from Kenya to Nigeria.

From Reuters • Nov. 15, 2022

Apart from the enhanced interrogation and extraordinary rendition aspects of what she did, does her experience, résumé, and comportment argue for her, or against her, to lead the CIA?

From Slate • May 9, 2018

The court concluded that Italian authorities “were aware that Abu Omar was a victim of the extraordinary rendition operation” involving his 2003 kidnapping on a Milan street.

From Washington Post • Feb. 23, 2016

Now, the intimacies that are of no import to anyone but you have been subject to virtual extraordinary rendition.

From The Guardian • Jul. 3, 2013