Convict

How to spell convict

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce convict

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does convict mean?

1. verbTo find or declare someone guilty of a criminal offence in a court of law.
2. nounA person who has been found guilty of a crime and is serving a prison sentence.

Convict in a sentence

• verb

  The jury voted to convict him on all three charges.

• noun

  The escaped convict was recaptured near the coast two days later.

• verb

  Prosecutors struggled to convict the suspect without forensic evidence.

• noun

  Each convict in the wing was assigned a daily work detail.

Where does convict come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb convincere, which combined the intensive prefix com- (here meaning 'thoroughly') with vincere, meaning 'to conquer' or 'to overcome'. The literal idea was to thoroughly defeat someone in argument, and by extension to prove a charge against them beyond doubt. English took it up in the late 1300s, originally meaning to demonstrate guilt or to overcome by proof. The same vincere root powers a whole family of familiar words, including 'victory', 'evince', and 'invincible', so a convict is in a sense someone who has been decisively beaten in court. The noun sense, naming a person found guilty and serving a sentence, grew out of the verb and was firmly established by the 1600s. Knowing that the spelling carries the 'vict' of 'victory' helps fix the single c in the middle.

How the word is built

• con- (intensive, from Latin com-: together/thoroughly)
• vict (from vincere: to conquer, overcome)