Accusation

How to spell accusation

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce accusation

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does accusation mean?

1. nounA claim or formal charge that someone has done something wrong or illegal.

Accusation in a sentence

• The manager denied every accusation of fraud during the meeting.

• A serious accusation like that needs solid evidence before anyone acts on it.

Where does accusation come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word descends from the Latin accusatio, a noun built on the verb accusare, meaning 'to call someone to account' or 'to bring a legal charge'. That verb was formed from ad- meaning 'toward' or 'against' joined to causa, which meant 'cause', 'reason', or specifically a 'lawsuit', so the literal idea was to call a person toward a legal case. English took the word through Old French acusacion in the fourteenth century, keeping the legal flavour of a formal charge laid against someone. The same causa root sits inside everyday words like 'cause', 'because', and 'excuse', which is a useful reminder that the middle of accusation is built on 'cus', not 's' alone. The spelling trap is the doubled c at the front, inherited directly from the Latin ad- prefix collapsing into the c, plus the soft -sation ending that sounds like a z.

How the word is built

• ac- (ad-: toward, against)
• cus (from causa: cause, lawsuit)
• -ation (noun-forming suffix)