Showing results for "implicated"

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

implicated

American  

[im-pli-key-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

While Sánchez himself has not been directly implicated in any of the investigations, family members have.

From BBC • May 30, 2026

Boeing has acknowledged that its anti-stall software was implicated in both fatal crashes.

From Barron's • May 13, 2026

"Peroxisomes are implicated in some human diseases and used in bioengineering," said Nathan Tharp, first author of the paper and a Rice graduate student.

From Science Daily • Apr. 25, 2026

“You and I and everyone else who supported him … you wrote speeches for him, I campaigned for him. We’re implicated in this for sure,” Carlson told his brother on the podcast.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 22, 2026

“So you do not think that she is likely to be implicated in this crime?”

From "Murder on the Orient Express" by Agatha Christie

Related Words

• involved