ENGLISH
REFERENCE

miranda

adj.
C2 Proficiency US //mɝˈændə// mi·ran·da

adj. used to describe the legal warning police in the US must give to people they arrest. It tells you that you have the right to stay silent and have a lawyer.

adj. relating to the legal requirement that a suspect be informed of their constitutional rights before being questioned by police. Derived from the 1966 US Supreme Court case Miranda v. Arizona; typically used as a modifier for nouns like 'rights' or 'warning'.


SIMPLE

The officer read the suspect his Miranda rights.

CONTEXTUAL

If a police officer fails to give a Miranda warning during an arrest, the suspect's statements may be excluded from court.

COMPLEX

Legal scholars often debate whether the Miranda ruling truly protects vulnerable suspects or merely provides a procedural hurdle that seasoned criminals have learned to navigate with ease.

Etymology 1

Coined by William Shakespeare for a character in The Tempest; feminine of Latin mirandus (“admirable”).

Etymology 2

From the Romance (Spanish, Portuguese, Italian habitational surname) Miranda. The common noun and verb are after the case Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966), after Ernesto Miranda.

Usage

Typically functions as an attributive adjective modifying 'rights', 'warning', or 'ruling'.

Pitfall

The police mirandized to him.The police mirandized him.When used as a verb (to mirandize), it is transitive and takes a direct object without a preposition.

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