Meaning & use
extradite
Last updated
Meaning
verbtransitivelegal
To send a person accused or convicted of a crime to the country or state that wants to put them on trial or punish them.
Grammar: Takes an object and often to or from: extradite a suspect to France.
Patterns
- extradite someone to a place
- extradite someone from a place
- extradite someone for something
Britain agreed to extradite the suspect to the United States.
The court refused to extradite him because he might face unfair treatment.
Authorities hope to extradite the fugitive from Spain.
Word forms
| third person singular | extradites |
|---|---|
| past tense | extradited |
| past participle | extradited |
| -ing form | extraditing |
Common combinations
- extradite a suspect
- Officials moved to extradite the suspect last week.
- extradite to face charges
- He was extradited to face fraud charges.
- extradition treaty
- The two countries signed an extradition treaty.
- refuse to extradite
- Some governments refuse to extradite their own citizens.
Synonyms and how they differ
- deport
- Deport removes a foreigner from a country regardless of any wanted charge, whereas extradite answers a formal request from another state.
- surrender
- Surrender is wider and can be voluntary, while extradite is a formal legal process between governments.
- hand over
- Hand over is everyday and vague, whereas extradite names the specific legal procedure.
Opposites
Word family
- extradition noun
- the legal process of sending a suspect to another country
- extraditable adjective
- of an offense or person that can be extradited
- extraditee noun
- a rare word for a person being extradited
Commonly confused: extradite or deport?
extradite vs deport
Deport means to expel a foreigner from a country, usually for breaking immigration rules, and needs no request from another government.
Practice
The court ruled that the businessman should be ___ to Canada to stand trial.
Choose one answer.
Extradited fits because a country is sending a suspect to another to be tried. Deported would suggest expelling a foreigner without a trial request.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “extradite”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.