Meaning & use
treason
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Meanings
noununcountable
The crime of betraying your own country, for example by helping its enemies or trying to overthrow its government.
Grammar: No an or plural: charged with treason.
Patterns
- commit treason
- charge someone with treason
- treason against something
He was charged with treason for passing secrets to a foreign power.
In some countries, treason was once punished by death.
The general was accused of treason against the crown.
noununcountablefigurative
Any serious betrayal of a person or cause you owed loyalty to.
Grammar: Figurative and more emotional: it was treason to leave the group.
Patterns
- treason to something
Changing teams felt like treason to his old friends.
To the old guard, speaking to the press was treason.
She called his silence an act of treason against the family.
Common combinations
- high treason
- He was tried for high treason.
- charged with treason
- The officer was charged with treason.
- commit treason
- Helping the enemy army would commit treason.
- convicted of treason
- She was convicted of treason and imprisoned.
- an act of treason
- Leaking the plans was an act of treason.
Synonyms and how they differ
- betrayal
- Betrayal is the general word for breaking trust, while treason is a specific serious crime against the state.
- sedition
- Sedition means stirring up rebellion by words or actions, and it is usually a lesser offense than treason.
- disloyalty
- Disloyalty is a quality or a lapse, and it is not a crime, whereas treason is.
- perfidy
- Perfidy is a literary word for treacherous faithlessness, and it lacks the legal meaning of treason.
Opposites
Word family
- treasonous adjective
- involving or amounting to treason
- treasonable adjective
- formal: constituting treason
- traitor noun
- a person who commits treason
- treacherous adjective
- likely to betray, or dangerous
Commonly confused: treason or reason? treason or sedition?
treason vs reason
Treason is a crime of betrayal, while reason is a cause or the ability to think; they differ by one letter.
treason vs sedition
Sedition is encouraging opposition to the government without necessarily helping an enemy, while treason is a deeper betrayal of the state.
Practice
The minister was arrested and charged with ___ after selling military secrets to another country.
Choose one answer.
Treason is the crime of betraying one's country, such as selling its secrets. Trespass means entering land without permission.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “treason”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.