ENGLISH
REFERENCE

acquitted

adj.
B2 Upper Intermediate US //əˈkwɪtɪd// UK //ɐkwˈɪtɪd// ac·quit·ted

adj. not found guilty of a crime by a court. You use this when a judge or jury decides someone is innocent.

adj. having been formally declared not guilty of a criminal charge by a court of law. Typically used predicatively after linking verbs like 'be' or 'seem'.


SIMPLE

The jury acquitted him of all charges.

CONTEXTUAL

After a long trial, the judge acquitted the defendant because there was not enough evidence.

COMPLEX

Although the public remained convinced of his guilt, the legal system acquitted him due to a technical error in how the evidence was collected.

Synonyms
Antonyms
Usage

The adjective is typically used predicatively (e.g., 'he was acquitted') rather than attributively before a noun.

Pitfall

He was acquitted innocent.He was acquitted.Acquitted already means 'found not guilty', so adding 'innocent' is redundant and grammatically incorrect.

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