Acquittal

Definition: Acquittal

Acquittal

Noun

1. A judgment of not guilty.

Date "acquittal" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1637. (references)

Domain	Definitions
Law	Judgement that a criminal defendant has not been proved guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

In criminal law, an acquittal is the legal result of a verdict of not guilty, or some similar end of the proceeding that terminates it with prejudice without a verdict of guilty being entered against the accused. The opposite result is a conviction.

In the common law tradition, an acquittal formally certifies the innocence of the accused, as far as the criminal law is concerned. Under the rules of double jeopardy and autrefois acquit, an acquittal operates to bar the retrial of the accused for the same offense. The effect of an acquittal on criminal proceedings is the same whether it results from a jury verdict, or whether it results from the operation of some other rule that discharges the accused.

An acquittal, while conclusive as to the criminal law, does not necessarily bar private civil actions in tort or on some other grounds as a result of the facts alleged in the charge. O. J. Simpson could be held civilly liable for battery even after being tried and acquitted of murder.

Antonym: conviction (n). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Acquittal	Noun: acquittal, acquitment; clearance, exculpation; acquittance, clearance, exoneration; discharge; (release); quietus, absolution, compurgation, reprieve, respite; pardon; (forgiveness).
Duty	Observance, fulfillment, discharge, performance, acquittal, satisfaction, redemption; good behavior.
Forgiveness	Excuse, exoneration, quittance, release, indemnity; bill of indemnity, act of indemnity, covenant of indemnity, deed of indemnity; exculpation; (acquittal).
Liberation	Deliverance; redemption, extrication, acquittance, absolution; acquittal; escape;.
Observance	Noun: observance, performance, compliance, acquiescence, concurrence; obedience; fulfillment, satisfaction, discharge; acquittance, acquittal.
Vindication	Noun: vindication, justification, warrant; exoneration, exculpation; acquittal; whitewashing.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Crosswords: Acquittal

English words defined with "acquittal": Acquitment, Assoilment ♦ Divisible offense. (references)

Domain	Usage
Screenplays	You see, in definite acquittal, all the documents are annulled. (Procès, Le; writing credit: Orson Welles)
Movie/TV Titles	The Acquittal (1923)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Domain	Title
Books	Acquittal (reference) Acquittal of God: A Theology for Vietnam Veterans (reference) Acquittal rates (reference) Better That 100 Witches Should Live: The 1696 Acquittal of Thomas Maule of Salem, Massachusetts, on Charges of Seditious Libel and Its Impact on the D (reference) Justice, sedition charge, conviction & acquittal of Arthur Nwankwo, author of How Jim Nwobodo rules Anambra State (reference) (more book examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Title	Author	Quote
Emma	Austen, Jane	Too much indebted to the event for his acquittal.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Subject	Topic	Quote
Civil Liberties	Pakistan	When blasphemy and other religious cases are brought to court, extremists often pack the courtroom and make public threats about the consequences of an acquittal. (references)
	Russia	Federal authorities have denied visas to Dan Pollard, formerly of the Vanino Baptist Church in Khabarovsk region, and David Binkley of the Church of Christ in Magadan who were denied visas despite their acquittal on tax and customs charges. (references)
Human Rights	Bosnia and Herzegovina	The ICTY during the year issued 11 convictions and 1 acquittal. (references)
Women	Zambia	According to official statistics, more than 4,700 rape cases were reported to the police between 1991 and 1998. Of these, approximately 30 percent resulted in conviction and 5 percent in acquittal. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Speaker	Phrase(s)
Erin Runnion	Well, I think, first of all, I think I heard the Riverside district attorney's office, the DA was saying that he has to live with this for the rest of his life because of the acquittal. And he doesn't have to live with this. He did the best job he could.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

"Acquittal" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Acquittal" is used about 125 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)	100%	125	28,650

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 "acquittal"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Afrikaan		kwytskelding. (various references)

Albanian		shfajësim (apology, clearing, discharge, exculpation, excuse, justification, plea, vindication), kryerje (accomplishment, achievement, commission, commitment, committal, discharge, execution, exercise, feasibility, fulfillment, fulfilment, implementation, performance, perpetration, prosecution, pursuance, transaction). (various references)

Arabic		‏تبرئة (absolution, clearing, exoneration, vindication, whitewash), ‏إعفاء (dispensation, exemption, immunity, release, relief, remission of debts). (various references)

Bulgarian		уреждане на сметки (audit, settlement), освобождаване от отговорност (indemnity), оправдателна присъда (absolution), оправдание (absolution, excuse, justification, plea, vindication, warrant), погасяване (extinction, liquidation, paying up, quenching, sinking), изпълнение (accomplishment, acting, completion, discharge, effect, effectuation, enforcement, execution, exercise, implementation, interpretation, operation, performance, pursuance, rendering, rendition, working out). (various references)

Chinese		释免. (various references)

Czech		zproštìní (discharge, release, removal), osvobození (deliverance, enfranchisement, exemption, immunity, liberation, manumission, release, rescue). (various references)

Danish		fordel for frifindelse. (various references)

Dutch		afbetaling (full payment, installment payment, instalment, payment, payment by installments, progress payment), absolutie (absolution), vrýspraak (absolution), voltrekking (accomplishment), vervulling (accomplishment), vereffening (equalisation, equalization, liquidation, settlement), uitvoering (accomplishment, execution, fill, implementation, presentation, version), naleving (accomplishment), lossing (discharge, draft, unloading), kwýtschelding, kwýting, inlossing (accomplishment), effening. (various references)

Farsi		تبرءه واریز, روسفیدی , براءت ذمه . (various references)

Finnish		(syytteestä)vapauttava tuomio. (various references)

French		acquittement (acknowledgement). (various references)

Frisian		ôfbetelling (full payment, payment). (various references)

German		Freispruch. (various references)

Greek		αθώωση (absolution, exculpation, exoneration). (various references)

Hebrew		זכוי (crediting, entitling, exculpation, exoneration, vindication), זכות (advantage, credit, equity, favour, merit, prerogative, privilege, right, vantage), �"ז�"כות, �"ימוס (amnesty). (various references)

Hungarian		teljesítés (accomplishment, achievement, acquiescence, acquitment, acquitting, compliance, consummation, discharge, fulfillment, fulfilment, implementation, non-compliance, performance), felmentés (absolution, acquitment, acquittance, acquitting, deliverance, dispensation, exculpation, exemption, exoneration, relief), felmentő ítélet (acquitment, acquittance, acquitting). (various references)

Icelandic		aflausn (absolution), syndafyrirgefning (absolution). (various references)

Indonesian		pemulasan. (various references)

Italian		pagamento (acquittance, defrayal, disbursement, discharge, full, full payment, inpayment, payment, repayment, settlement), assoluzione (absolution, discharge). (various references)

Japanese Kanji		�"�免 (liberation, release). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		しゃくほう (liberation, release), ほうめ�" (direction, district, field, liberation, release), め�"ざい (papal indulgence, pardon), め�"そ (dismissal, tax exemption). (various references)

Korean		면죄. (various references)

Manx		seyrvriwnys, seyrey (absolution, absolve, acquit, affranchise, affranchisement, clear, clear from guilt, deliver, discharge, disembarrass, disencumber; exploit; clearing, disengage, dismiss, dismissal, disoblige, dispensation; exploitation, ease, emancipate, emancipation, enfranchise, exempt, exemption, exonerate, exoneration, free, justification, justify, liberate, liberation, purge, release, relieve, riddance, vindication, vindication act of), lhiggey jeh (acquit, blow off, shoot off, work off), cooilleeney (achieve, achievement, acquit, avenge, compensate, compensation, consummate, consummation, execute, fulfil, fulfilment, punishment, satisfaction, satisfy, vengeance). (various references)

Pig Latin		acquittalay

Polish		wykonanie (accomplishment), spełnienie. (various references)

Portuguese		absolvição (absolution, aquittal, discharge, pardon), sentença de absolvição, libertação (clear-down, clearing, clearing procedure, deliverance, delivery, discharge, disengagement, emancipation, engage, escape, exequatur, extrinsic, freedom, liberation, release, relief, relieving, riddance), desempenho (accomplishment, acting, fulfillment, fulfilment, hand, interpretation, prosecution), cumprimento (accomplishment, accost, compliance, compliment, enforcement, fulfillment, fulfilment, greeting, hallo, implementation, observance, performance, respect, salute). (various references)

Romanian		achitare (acquittance, clearance, defrayal, disbursement, discharge, exoneration, liquidation, quittance, redemption, remittal, satisfaction), absolvire (absolution, acquittance, excuse, exoneration, forgiveness, graduation, release), scutire (absolution, discharge, disengagement, exemption, release, relief, remission, saving, sparing), iertare (absolution, apology, condonation, excuse, forgiveness, forgiving, grace, mercy, pardon, remise, remission, remitment, sparing), îndeplinire (accomplishment, achievement, acquittance, completion, discharge, execution, fulfilment, implementation, pursuance, realization, satisfaction). (various references)

Russian		оправдание (absolution, alibi, defences, defenses, exculpation, excuse, exoneration, explanation, justification, plea, reason). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		oslobađajuća presuda. (various references)

Spanish		absolución (absolution, release, shrift). (various references)

Swedish		frikännande (absolution, exoneration). (various references)

Turkish		yerine getirme (administration, consummation, execution, exercise, fulfillment, fulfilment, implement, implementation, observance, performance, pursuance, redemption), yapma (accomplishment, artificial, construction, cut it out, drop it, dummy, execution, exercise, fulfillment, fulfilment, go on, imitated, implement, making, perpetration, postiche, pursuance, sham, spurious, stop it), temize çıkma (justification, quittance, whitewash), beraat (exculpation, exoneration). (various references)

Ukranian		виконання (accomplishment, achievement, acting, completion, effectuation, execution, fulfilment, implementation, performance, pursuance, pursuit, realization, redemption, rendition), виправдання (absolution, acquittance, alibi, allowance, apology, defence, defense, exculpation, excuse, explanation, justification, palliation, warrant, warranty, whitewash), звільнення (acquittance, affranchisement, amendment, bounce, deliverance, disengagement, dismissal, dismission, ejection, emancipation, enfranchisement, enlargement, exemption, exoneration, freedom, immunity, liberation, push, quit, quittance, release, remission, remittal). (various references)

Vietnamese		sự trả xong nợ, sự trang trải xong nợ nần sự tha tội, sự tha bổng. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Language	Period	Translations
Latin	500 BCE-Modern	liberatione, liberationem. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "acquittal": acquittals. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Acquittal" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: acquital, Anquetil, aqquittal, aquittal, Caquita. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "acquittal" (pronounced ukwi"tul)
5	-w i" t u l	Whittle.
4	-i" t u l	belittle, brittle, committal, Kittel, Kittle, little, noncommittal, skittle, spittle, tittle, transmittal, vittle.
3	-t u l	accidental, anecdotal, artiodactyl, battle, beetle, betel, bicoastal, bottle, brattle, Bristol, brutal, butyl, Cantle, capital, Capitol, cattle, chattel, chortle, coastal, coincidental, compartmental, congenital, consonantal, continental, crustal, crystal, dental, detrimental, developmental, digital, disgruntle, dismantle, distal, ductile, elemental, embattle, entitle, environmental, experimental, extramarital, fatal, fertile, fetal, fractal, frontal, fundamental, futile, genital, gentle, glottal, governmental, horizontal, hospital, hostel, hostile, hurtle, immortal, immotile, incidental, incremental, infantile, infertile, instrumental, intercontinental, intergovernmental, judgmental, kettle, lentil, lintel, mantel, mantle, marital, mental, metal, mettle, monumental, mortal, motile, Myrtle, Natal, neonatal, nettle, nonfatal, nongovernmental, nonvolatile, occidental, occipital, orbital, oriental, ornamental, parental, parietal, pedestal, periodontal, petal, Pistil, pistol, pivotal, portal, postal, postnatal, Pottle, prattle, prefrontal, premarital, prenatal, projectile, quintal, rattle, rebuttal, recital, rectal, regimental, rental, resettle, scuttle, sentimental, settle, shuttle, skeletal, societal, startle, subtitle, subtle, supplemental, tactile, tattle, temperamental, throttle, title, tootle, total, transcendental, transcontinental, turtle, unsentimental, unsettle, unsubtle, varietal, vegetal, versatile, vestal, vital, volatile, Wintle.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-a-c-i-l-q-t-t-u"
	-2 letters: aquatic, cattail, tactual.
	-3 letters: acquit, actual, qualia.
	-4 letters: atilt, attic, aulic, culti, quail, quilt, tacit, tical.
	-5 letters: acta, alit, aqua, caul, clit, cult, laic, lati, litu, quai, quit, tact, tail, tala, talc, tali, taut, tilt.
	Words containing the letters "a-a-c-i-l-q-t-t-u"
	+1 letter: acquittals.
	+4 letters: aquaculturist.
	+5 letters: aquaculturists.
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.