acquittal

English

Etymology

From acquit +‎ -al.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /əˈkwɪ.t(ə)l/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /əˈkwɪ.d(ə)l/

Noun

acquittal (countable and uncountable, plural acquittals)

1. (now rare) The act of fulfilling the duties (of a given role, obligation etc.). [from 15th c.]
2. (law) A legal decision that someone is not guilty with which they have been charged, or the formal dismissal of a charge by some other legal process. [from 15th c.]
3. Payment of a debt or other obligation; reparations, amends. [from 15th c.]
4. (historical) The act of releasing someone from debt or other obligation; acquittance. [from 15th c.]
5. (rare) Avoidance of danger; deliverance. [from 17th c.]

Alternative forms

• acquital (obsolete)

Antonyms

• conviction
• condemnation

Derived terms

• nonacquittal
• postacquittal
• preacquittal

 

Related terms

• acquit

Translations

legal decision of not guilty

• Armenian: արդարացում (hy) (ardaracʻum)
• Belarusian: апраўда́нне n (apraŭdánnje)
• Bulgarian: оправда́ване n (opravdávane)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 宣告無罪／宣告无罪 (xuāngào wúzuì), 無罪開釋／无罪开释 (wúzuì kāishì)

• Danish: frikendelse c, frifindelse c
• Dutch: vrijspraak (nl) m or f
• Faroese: frídøming f
• Finnish: vapauttava tuomio, vapautus (fi)
• French: acquittement (fr) m, relaxe (fr) f
• German: Freispruch (de) m
• Hebrew: זיכוי (he) m (zi-kui)
• Hungarian: felmentés (hu), felmentő ítélet
• Icelandic: sýknudómur m
• Indonesian: bebas (id), pembebasan (id)
• Italian: assoluzione (it) f
• Japanese: 無罪判決 (むざいはんけつ, muzai hanketsu), 放免 (ja) (ほうめん, hōmen)
• Malay: pembebasan (ms)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: frifinnelse m, frifinnelsesdom, frikjennelse

  Nynorsk: frikjenning, frifinning, frikjennande dom

• Polish: uniewinnianie (pl) n
• Portuguese: absolvição (pt)
• Romanian: achitare (ro) f
• Russian: оправда́ние (ru) n (opravdánije)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ослобађање

  Roman: oslobađanje (sh)

• Spanish: absolución (es) f
• Swedish: frikännande (sv) n, frikännande dom c
• Tagalog: pawalansala
• Ukrainian: ви́правдання n (výpravdannja)

payment of debt or other obligation

• Finnish: velan maksu
• Hungarian: teljesítés (hu), kártalanítás (hu), visszafizetés (hu)

acquittance from debt

• Danish: frikendelse c
• Finnish: mitätöinti (fi)
• French: acquittement (fr) m
• Russian: освобожде́ние (ru) n (osvoboždénije) (от долга, обязательств)