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:
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
Second, it turns out that the grand jury originally refused to indict the Broadview Six, and instead came back with what’s called a “no true bill.”
From Slate ● May 22, 2026
But grand juries refused to indict many demonstrators accused by federal prosecutors of attacking agents, and a Times review of alleged assaults found that most incidents resulted in no injuries.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 27, 2026
She was using my fingernails to indict my soul.
From "Jacob Have I Loved" by Katherine Paterson
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
Former federal officers may do so when a state indicts them for actions that were within their official duties and they have a “colorable” defense under federal law.
From Slate ● Aug. 23, 2023
In Georgia and in the federal system, a grand jury that indicts people cannot force the testimony of a target.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 13, 2023
With his compassionate humor, Chekhov neither indicts his characters nor lets them off the hook for their myopic concerns.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2022
The interim report of the Kefauver Committee strongly indicts crime and horror comics and gives some revolting illustrations of their contents.
From Report of the Juvenile Delinquency Committee by R. M. (Ronald Macmillan) Algie
Federal prosecutors indicted me on public corruption charges, alleging a quid pro quo.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
Mladić was arrested in 2011, 16 years after he was first indicted, and sentenced to life in prison in 2021 after a nine-year trial.
From BBC ● Sep. 7, 2026
While they mention — almost in passing — that it’s the “same courthouse where Paxton would later be indicted for investment fraud,” the focus is on the pen.
From Salon ● Aug. 31, 2026
Mladic was dismissed from his post after being indicted in 1995, but he evaded capture for another 16 years.
From Barron's ● Aug. 27, 2026
In Los Angeles, a grand jury indicted Daniel Ellsberg on three felony counts, including theft and unauthorized possession of classified documents, and violation of the Espionage Act.
From "Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War" by Steve Sheinkin
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
Police in Texas investigated Lucy's death as possible manslaughter but a grand jury in Collin County decided against indicting her father.
From BBC ● Jul. 16, 2026
The Justice Department made the charges public last December—a rare case of indicting a foreign military official for abuse of a U.S. citizen abroad.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 12, 2025
But the track’s harshest beatdown is reserved for a final verse indicting the music industry’s silence.
From Salon ● May 8, 2024
At the time there was some talk of indicting the jury, a strong belief prevailing that their verdict had been bought.
From The Crime of the Century or, The Assassination of Dr. Patrick Henry Cronin by Henry M. Hunt
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
