convict
English doing what only English can.
Juries convict convict criminals based on evidence.
The sentence describes how juries find imprisoned offenders guilty of crimes based on evidence.
Meanings
to declare a person guilty of a criminal offense, typically through legal proceedings
- The jury convicted him of fraud.
- She was convicted on three counts of perjury.
a person serving a prison sentence after being declared guilty of a crime
- The convict was paroled after fifteen years.
- Escaped convicts triggered a state-wide manhunt.
Word origin
From Latin convictus, past participle of convincere ('to overcome, prove guilty'), formed from com- (intensifier) + vincere ('to conquer'). The same Latin root produces 'convince' — to 'convict' someone is to overcome their innocence with evidence; to 'convince' is to overcome their disbelief with argument. The trochaic noun rule produces the modern stress shift.
Fun fact
The verb 'convict' and the verb 'convince' share the same Latin root — both come from convincere ('to overcome'). The split happened in Late Latin: 'to convict' overcame guilt; 'to convince' overcame doubt. The noun 'convict' (a person) is much later, an early-modern English coinage from the verb.