Amnesty

How to spell amnesty

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce amnesty

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does amnesty mean?

1. nounAn official pardon for people who have committed an offence, or a period during which they can act without being punished.

Amnesty in a sentence

• The government offered an amnesty to tax evaders who came forward voluntarily.

• The library declared a one-week amnesty on overdue books, waiving all fines.

Where does amnesty come from?

Language of origin: Greek

The word descends from the Greek amnestia, which literally meant 'forgetfulness' or 'a deliberate overlooking', built from the negative prefix a- meaning 'not' and the root mnasthai meaning 'to remember'. The idea was a formal decision to put past offences out of mind, as though they had never been recorded. Greek passed it into Latin as amnestia, and English took it up in the late 1500s, often in the context of a ruler pardoning rebels or political offenders. Its very close relative is 'amnesia', the loss of memory, which shares the same 'not remembering' root and explains the otherwise odd 'mn' cluster in the spelling. Remembering that hidden 'forget' meaning is a useful trick: the silent-feeling m-n pairing in 'amnesty' comes straight from the Greek word for memory.

How the word is built

• a- (not)
• mne- (remember, from Greek mnasthai)
• -sty (noun ending from Greek -tia)