Meaning & use
convict
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Meanings
verbtransitive
To officially decide in a court that someone is guilty of a crime.
Grammar: Often used in the passive: be convicted of a crime. The stress is on the second syllable: con-VICT.
Patterns
- convict someone of something
- be convicted of something
The jury convicted him of theft after a short trial.
She was convicted of fraud and sentenced to two years in prison.
It is difficult to convict someone without strong evidence.
nouncountable
A person who has been found guilty of a crime and is serving a sentence in prison.
Grammar: The stress is on the first syllable: CON-vict. It is a countable noun: an ex-convict, two convicts.
Patterns
- an escaped convict
- a convicted convict
The police are searching for an escaped convict.
He spent ten years as a convict in a high-security prison.
The charity helps former convicts find jobs after release.
Word forms
| third person singular | convicts |
|---|---|
| past tense | convicted |
| past participle | convicted |
| -ing form | convicting |
| plural | convicts |
Common combinations
- convict someone of a crime
- The court convicted him of armed robbery.
- be convicted of murder
- She was convicted of murder and given a life sentence.
- an escaped convict
- An escaped convict was seen near the border.
- wrongly convict
- The appeal showed that he had been wrongly convicted.
Synonyms and how they differ
- sentence
- To sentence someone is to give them a punishment after they are found guilty; convicting is the earlier step of declaring guilt.
- find guilty
- A phrase used especially in reporting the jury's decision; 'convict' is the formal verb for the whole legal process.
Opposites
Word family
- conviction noun
- A formal declaration that someone is guilty; also a strong belief.
- convicted adjective
- Having been found guilty in a court.
Commonly confused: convict or convince?
convict vs convince
To convince someone is to make them believe something; to convict someone is to find them guilty in court.
Practice
The jury ___ the defendant of robbery after deliberating for three hours.
Choose one answer.
The past tense 'convicted' is needed here to show the jury's decision. 'Convinced' means persuaded, which does not fit a court verdict; 'conviction' is a noun; 'convict' is the base form and would be ungrammatical after 'the jury' in this past-tense sentence.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “convict”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.