Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definitions: Amnesty |
AmnestyNoun1. A period during which offenders are exempt from punishment. 2. A warrant granting release from punishment for an offense. 3. The formal act of liberating someone. Verb1. Grant a pardon to (a group of people). Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "amnesty" was first used: 1580. (references) |
| Domain | Definitions |
Satire | AMNESTY, n. The state's magnanimity to those offenders whom it would be too expensive to punish. Source: Devil's Dictionary. |
Finance | A special provision that may be granted to taxpayers on any kind of tax, usually as an opportunity to pay previously unpaid taxes and with guaranteed freedom from penalties and prosecution, and sometimes offered to taxpayers at times when the government is fighting tax evasion and/or in an effort to raise additional revenue. Source: European Union. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Amnesty (from the Greek amnestia, oblivion) is an act of grace by which the supreme power in a state restores those who may have been guilty of any offence against it to the position of innocent persons. It includes more than pardon, inasmuch as it obliterates all legal remembrance of the offence. Amnesties, which may be granted by the crown alone, or by act of parliament, were formerly usual on coronations and similar occasions, but are chiefly exercised towards associations of political criminals, and are sometimes granted absolutely, though more frequently there are certain specified exceptions. Thus, in the case of the earliest recorded amnesty, that of Thrasybulus at Athens, the thirty tyrants and a few others were expressly excluded from its operation; and the amnesty proclaimed on the restoration of Charles II of England did not extend to those who had taken part in the execution of his father. Other celebrated amnesties are that proclaimed by Napoleon on March 13, 1815, from which thirteen eminent persons, including Talleyrand, were excepted; the Prussian amnesty of August 10, 1840; the general amnesty proclaimed by the emperor Franz Josef I of Austria in 1857; the general amnesty granted by President of the United States Andrew Johnson after the American Civil War in 1868; and the French amnesty of 1905. The last act of amnesty passed in Great Britain was that of 1747, which proclaimed a pardon to those who had taken part in the second Jacobite Rebellion.
Amnesty is often now used as a short form of the human rights organization Amnesty International.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Amnesty."
Synonyms: AmnestySynonyms: free pardon (n), pardon (n). (additional references) |
| Synonyms by domain: amnestying (politics & international affairesfinance). |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Forgiveness | Noun: forgiveness, pardon, condonation, grace, remission, absolution, amnesty, oblivion; indulgence; reprieve. |
Oblivion | Amnesty, general pardon. |
Pacification | Noun: pacification, conciliation; reconciliation, reconcilement; shaking of hands, accommodation, arrangement, adjustment; terms, compromise; amnesty, deed of release. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Amnesty |
| English words defined with "amnesty": Act of grace, Amnestied, Amnestying ♦ Compounder. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "amnesty": Amnesty. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | And declare an amnesty on all heretics and witches. (The Pit and the Pendulum; writing credit: Dennis Paoli; Edgar Allan Poe) | |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Oath of amnesty for Jonathan Thornton.Credit: Library of Congress. |  | People dressed as pilgrims carrying three signs for amnesty for political prisoners standing in front of the White House.Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Amnesty international / Cieslewicz '75.Credit: Library of Congress. |  | 1 million Americans need amnesty.Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Amnesty.Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Support amnesty : 500,000 Americans separated by a barricade.Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Wieviel sind Ihnen die Menschenrechte wert? : Amnesty International, Kampagne gegen politische Verfolgung und Folter.Credit: Library of Congress. | ||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Business | Also in July, Amnesty International published a report that found a "continuing pattern of police ill-treatment," largely affecting foreigners. (references) | |
Civil Liberties | Belize | Officials continued to process amnesty applications during the year. (references) |
Uzbekistan | She received 3 years of community service but later was granted amnesty. (references) | |
Uzbekistan | The court convicted the remaining defendant under a lesser charge and released him under amnesty. (references) | |
Discrimination | Brazil | The Gay Group of Bahia (GGB), the country's best known homosexual rights organization, and Amnesty International have documented the existence of skinhead, neo-Nazi, and "machista" gangs that attacked suspected homosexuals in cities including Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Salvador, Belo Horizonte, and Brasilia. (references) |
Economic History | El Salvador | Thereafter, the Legislative Assembly granted amnesty for political crimes committed during the war. (references) |
Kazakhstan | The legalized money was not taxed and it became available to its owners at the end of the amnesty period. (references) | |
Human Rights | South Africa | A total of 1,146 applicants were granted amnesty. (references) |
Tunisia | One amnesty issued on Republic Day (July 25) benefited mostly criminals. (references) | |
Cape Verde | The former President's July 2000 amnesty did not reduce the overcrowding. (references) | |
Indigenous People | Brazil | On July 25, Amnesty International released a report entitled "Racism and the Administration of Justice," which reported brutality against indigenous people. (references) |
Minorities | Brazil | In July Amnesty International released a report entitled "Racism and the Administration of Justice," which reported unequal treatment of Afro-Brazilians in the areas of health, education, and law enforcement, as well as brutality against indigenous people. (references) |
Brazil | The letter said that on or around the country's September 7 Independence Day the group intended to target a number of human rights organizations, including Tortura Nunca Mais (No More Torture), Action by Christians against Torture, Amnesty International, and gay and lesbian groups. (references) | |
Political Economy | Tunisia | She was released 6 weeks later as part of a broader amnesty. (references) |
South Africa | The activities of the amnesty committee of the TRC concluded at the end of June. (references) | |
Argentina | Two federal judges found the "full stop" and "due obedience" military amnesty laws to be unconstitutional. (references) | |
Political Rights | Mali | He exercises the power of pardon and can grant amnesty. (references) |
Armenia | Ten of these individuals were released under the June amnesty. (references) | |
Kenya | The opposition claimed that the legislation did not give the proposed authority sufficient independence and objected to an amnesty provision in the legislation. (references) | |
Trade | Kazakhstan | In early July 2001, $190 million was repatriated during Kazakhstan's 30-day capital amnesty program. (references) |
Women | Philippines | In March Amnesty International reported that women in police custody were particularly vulnerable to sexual and physical assault by police and jail officials. (references) |
Ghana | In July 2000, a group of seven organizations, including FIDA, Amnesty International, The Ghana Employers Association, and The Association of Business and Professional Women, issued a joint statement reflecting their disappointment at the police's lack of success, and encouraging the Government to seek international help to solve the murders. (references) | |
Worker Rights | Saudi Arabia | As of September 1999, as many as 1.1 million persons departed the country under terms of the amnesty or were deported for violating residence and labor laws. (references) |
Nigeria | Workers and employers in such zones are subject to national labor laws, which provide for a 10-year amnesty on trade unions from the startup of an enterprise. (references) | |
Saudi Arabia | In 1997 the Government offered an amnesty to allow illegal immigrants and their employers or sponsors to avoid the possibility of prosecution by voluntarily seeking expeditious repatriation. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Phrase(s) |
Mark Shields | Congressman Dick Armey, the majority leader of the House, President George W. Bush has advocated limited amnesty for undocumented aliens who have been in this country, working and living here. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Amnesty" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 61.13% of the time. "Amnesty" is used about 830 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 61.13% | 507 | 11,929 |
| Noun (proper) | 38.87% | 323 | 16,021 |
| Total | 100.00% | 830 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "amnesty": declare an amnesty ♦ grant amnesty ♦ grant amnesty to ♦ grant an amnesty to ♦ tax amnesty. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "amnesty"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Afrikaan | begenadig (absolve, forgive, pardon), amnestie (act of grace). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | amnisti, falje (absolution, excuse, forgiveness, mercy, pardon, remission), fal (condone, excuse, forgive, give, give away, incline, lend, pardon, pray, remit, set, switch off). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | عفو عام, صفح (condone, excuse, forgive, forgiveness, laminate, pardon, plate, remission), الصفح (forgiveness, pardon). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | амнистирам (pardon), амнистия (oblivion, pardon), помилване (caressing, fondling, free pardon, oblivion, pardon, reprieve, stroking), помилвам (caress, fondle, pardon, reprieve, stroke). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 特赦. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | amnestie. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | amnisti, amnesti (act of grace), skatteeftergivelse, benådning (absolution, act of grace, pardon). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | amnestie (act of grace). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Esperanto | amnestio, amnestii (pardon). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | گذشت (Pardon, Remission), عفوعمومی کردن , عفوعمومی . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | veroarmahdus. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | amnistie. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | Amnestie (act of grace, pardon). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | αμνηστία. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | לחון (endow, favour, grant, pardon, pity), לח ון (forgive, pardon), ח י " (clemency, compassion, mercy, pardon), "ימוס (acquittal). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | amnesztia (act of grace, bill of oblivion, general pardon), közkegyelem (act of grace, general pardon). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Indonesian | ampunan (forgiveness, pardon), amnesti, pengampunan (clemency, condonation, mercy, remission), keampunan (absolution, forgiveness, pardon). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | amnistia (act, act of grace, act of oblivion, pardon). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 特赦 , 恩赦 (a pardon), 大赦 . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | たいしゃ (Grand Shrine, leaving office, metabolism, red ocher, regeneration, renewal, resignation), お"しゃ (a pardon, your company), ア ネスティ , とくしゃ (exclusive photographing). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Korean | 특사 (Courier). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | pardooney (condone, pardon, remit), jean maihnys er, jannoo maihnys er, feaysley cadjin. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | amnestyay anistiar (pardon), anistia (act of grace). (various references) amnistie (act of oblivion, pardon), amnistia. (various references) амнистия (act of grace, Act of Oblivion, Bill of Oblivion, free pardon, general pardon). (various references) amnestija. (various references) amnistía (act of grace). (various references) benådning (absolution, pardon, repreive), amnesti (pardon). (various references) af (absolution, act of grace, dismissal, excusing, forgiveness, forgiving, mercy, oblivion, pardon, remission). (various references) свідоме потурання, амністія (oblivion, pardon), амністувати, прощення (absolution, condonation, forgiveness, mercy, pardon), прощати (absolve, excuse, overlook, pardon, remit). (various references) sự ân xá. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Greek | 700 BCE-300 CE | amnestia. (various references) |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | abolitio. (various references) |
| French | 1500-Modern | amnestie. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "amnesty": amnestying. (additional references) | |
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"Amnesty" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Ainsty, amnes, Amnest, amnestia, amnestic, amnestry, amnesy, amnity, anmesty, Annelsey, Aymestry, Manasty, manest, Manesty, Manisty. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "amnesty" (pronounced a"mnustē) |
| 5 | -n u s t ē | dishonesty, dynasty, honesty. |
| 4 | -u s t ē | majesty, modesty, travesty. |
| 3 | -s t ē | angioplasty, Beastie, bloodthirsty, Christie, Christy, crusty, dusty, feisty, frosty, gusty, hasty, lusty, misty, musty, nasty, rusty, sixty, tasty, testy, thirsty, trusty, twisty. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-e-m-n-s-t-y" | |
-1 letter: aments, mantes, mateys, mayest, stamen, steamy, yamens, yentas. | |
-2 letters: amens, ament, antes, antsy, etnas, etyma, manes, manse, mates, matey, mayst, means, meant, meany, meats, meaty, mensa, menta, mynas, names, nasty, nates, neats, nemas, satem, seamy, stane, steam, tames, tansy, teams, tynes, yamen, yeans, yeast, yenta. | |
-3 letters: amen, anes, ante, ants, ates, ayes, east. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-e-m-n-s-t-y" | |
+1 letter: mesnalty, payments. | |
+2 letters: dynamites, mateyness, monastery, oysterman, safetyman, safetymen, shantymen, tympanies, tyramines, vestryman, yachtsmen. | |
+3 letters: amnestying, antonymies, copayments, cysteamine, dynamiters, embayments, manifestly, mistakenly, myasthenia, myasthenic, nematocyst, repayments, segmentary, tympanites. | |
+4 letters: actinomyces, amethystine, anonymities, cysteamines, inestimably, mateynesses, melanocytes, metanalyses, metanalysis, myasthenias, myasthenics, mycetozoans, nematocysts, nonpayments, nystagmuses, prepayments, sedimentary, segmentally, semitonally, statesmanly, synaptosome, tautonymies, trypanosome, tryptamines. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)41 6D 6E 65 73 74 79 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references).- -- -. . ... - -.--. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01000001 01101101 01101110 01100101 01110011 01110100 01111001 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)A m n e s t y |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0041 006D 006E 0065 0073 0074 0079 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)35798071858691 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Quotations: Non-fiction 8. Quotations: Spoken | 9. Usage Frequency 10. Expressions 11. Expressions: Internet 12. Translations: Modern | 13. Translations: Ancient 14. Derivations 15. Rhymes 16. Anagrams | 17. Orthography 18. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
