Showing results for "implicated"

• past participle of implicate.
• past tense form of implicate.

implicated

American  

[im-pli-kay-tid] / ˈɪm plɪˌkeɪ tɪd /

adjective

1. shown to be also involved, especially in an incriminating manner.

   In the wake of last year’s doping scandal, the Cycling Federation states that this year’s team will have no connection to any of the implicated team members, either directly or indirectly.

2. implied as a necessary circumstance, or as something to be inferred or understood.

   My defensive post was answering an implicated accusation that clearly overstepped the boundaries of an opinion.

3. intimately connected or related, or affected as a result.

   The paper delves into the historical background of our modern understanding of time, as well as the implicated problem of infinity.

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verb

1. the simple past tense and past participle of implicate.

Other Word Forms

• unimplicated
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of implicated

implicate ( def. ) + -ed ² ( def. )

Explanation

Someone who is implicated in something is shown to be somehow involved in it. The word is often used in a negative sense, suggesting an involvement in something wrong, with the person being implicated by the facts of the case. The Latin word implicātus, which means "folded in," is the past participle of implicāre, meaning to interweave ideas or objects. In the 17th century, the word referred to a general entanglement in a complicated situation. By 1797, the definition had come to focus on the idea of criminal involvement, suggesting someone "folded in," or involved, in a crime or scandal. Today, the word implicated is not necessarily tied to crime, but it's generally negative.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

implicated

Knight from 1977, the court ruled that the denial of a press pass implicated a First Amendment liberty interest.

From Salon ● Sep. 22, 2026

"The individuals implicated in these case studies are working scientists. We do not assert that they intended harm, and identifying them or their labs could expose them to harm," the report said.

From Barron's ● Sep. 11, 2026

They said over the past 18 years, Davis implicated himself on four separate occasions through interviews with federal and local investigators, appearances in television and YouTube documentaries, and his memoir.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 1, 2026

The company has been implicated in several wildfires, including the 2018 Camp Fire that destroyed the town of Paradise, Calif., in a rural area about 90 miles north of Sacramento.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 31, 2026

Other pieces of evidence also implicated Burt in a crime.

From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann

Related Words

• involved