indict
v.to formally accuse someone of a crime in a court of law. It is the first step before a trial starts.
v.to formally accuse a person of a crime in a court of law. Transitive — requires a direct object, typically the defendant.
“The grand jury decided to indict the mayor.”
“After a thorough investigation, the district attorney chose to indict the suspect on several counts of fraud.”
“The decision to indict the high-ranking official sent shockwaves through the political community, as it marked the first time such a figure had been formally charged in decades.”
“Their 32-year-old son, Nick Reiner, was indicted for two counts of first-degree murder and has pleaded not guilty.”
“Lodge and six other co-conspirators who had no connection to Harvard were all indicted and pleaded guilty in 2025.”
From Middle English enditen, endyten (“to accuse”), from Old French enditer (“to dictate, indite”), from Late Latin indictāre, frequentative of Latin indicere (“to proclaim”), from in- + dicere (“to say”), or from in- + dictāre (“to say often, to dictate”). Doublet of indite. The irregular spelling is due to the word having been borrowed into Middle English from Old French, and not from Latin as was the case with most other descendants of dictāre (but see dight). The borrowed /iː/ regularly shifted to /aɪ/ in the course of the Great Vowel Shift; the ⟨c⟩ represents a later attempt at graphic Latinisation.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.