Showing results for "accused"

• past participle of accuse.
• past tense form of accuse.

accused

American  

[uh-kyoozd] / əˈkjuzd /

adjective

1. charged with a crime, wrongdoing, fault, etc..

   the accused boy.

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noun

1. Often the accused a person or persons charged in a court of law with a crime, offense, etc.

accused British  

/ əˈkjuːzd /

noun

1. law the defendant or defendants appearing on a criminal charge

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Usage

What does accused mean? Accused is an adjective that means charged with a crime or other offense. Accused is also used as a noun to refer to a person or people who have been charged with a crime, often as the accused. To accuse someone of something means to say that they are guilty of it. This can happen in everyday situations, such as children accusing each other of not sharing. But accused is most used in the context of the criminal justice system to indicate that a person has been officially charged with a crime. Example: The accused was escorted in the courtroom by police.

Other Word Forms

• misaccused
  adjective
• self-accused
  adjective
• unaccused
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of accused

First recorded in 1585–95; accuse + -ed ²

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

accused

Three further defendants - Mark Butler, 45, David James, 58, and Terry Stephens, 67 - also appeared in court on Friday accused of the same offence.

From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2026

The San Francisco-based AI lab also accused Chinese developers of deceptively using Claude to produce responses to user queries while simultaneously "distilling" that data to improve their own models.

From Barron's ● Sep. 11, 2026

The case went before Carter, who also oversees a six-year-old case in which the city and county are accused of inadequately addressing homelessness.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 10, 2026

Meng was accused of misleading one of the banks, previously identified as HSBC, about its control of a subsidiary that did business in Iran.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026

“She most of all,” said Ernest, “requires consolation; she accused herself of having caused the death of my brother, and that made her very wretched. But since the murderer has been discovered—”

From "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley