Meaning & use

convict

verb·Academic

To formally declare, through a court, that someone is guilty of a crime.

See it in a sentence

The jury convicted the defendant after only two hours of deliberation.

It is difficult to convict someone without strong physical evidence in court.

A note on using this word

Stress falls on the second syllable for the verb (con-VICT) and the first for the noun (CON-vict).

Words with a similar meaning

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Words with an opposite meaning

Another way to use it

2. noun

A person who has been found guilty of a crime and is serving a sentence.

The escaped convict was recaptured within a few miles of the prison.

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