impeachment
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impeachment
- /ɪmˈpiːt͡ʃ.mənt/
Where it comes from
From Middle English empechement (“hindrance, impediment, obstacle, obstruction; legal accusation or charge; act of calling into question or discrediting; challenge to a claim or right”), and thence either:
* from Middle English empechen, empeschen, empesche, enpechen, impechen (“to cause to get stuck; of a ship: to run aground; to block, obstruct; to hinder, impede; to prevent; to interfere with, harm; to criticize, disparage; to bring charges against; to formally accuse of treason or another high crime”) (from Anglo-Norman empecher, Old French empechier, empeechier) + -ment (suffix forming action nouns, concrete nouns, and nouns indicating a result or a condition or state); or
* from Old French empechement, empeechement, empeschement (“obstacle”) (modern French empêchement (“impediment, obstacle”)), from empeechier (“to fetter; to hinder”), empescher (“to inhibit, prevent”) + -ment (suffix forming nouns from verbs).
The English word is analysable as impeach + -ment.
Old French empechier, empeechier and empescher (compare modern French empêcher) are derived from Late Latin impedicāre (“to catch; to entangle”), present active infinitive of Latin impedicō (“to entangle; to fetter”), from im- (variant of in-) + pedica (“fetter, shackle; snare, trap”) (from pēs (“foot”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ped- (“to step, walk; to fall, stumble”)) + -ō.
In senses 1.2 (“accusation that a person has committed a crime”) and 1.3 (“act of impeaching or charging a public official with misconduct”), the word has been used in place of Latin impetere, the present active infinitive of impetō (“to assail, attack, rush upon”).
noun impeachments · empeachment
-
The act of calling into question or challenging the accuracy or propriety of something.
[…] Nevertheleſs there was no ſo much care, labour, ſtudy, and diligence employed on our Party, by them, our ſelf, and other, for attaining your Grace's Purpoſe, but there was as much done by others for the lett and empeachment of the ſame; […]
Similar: deprecation, depreciation, discrediting, disparagement
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A demonstration in a court of law, or before another finder of fact, that a witness was ingenuine before, and is therefore less likely to tell the truth now.
It is sometimes intimated that testimony which is direct and positive cannot legally be rebutted and overturned by presumptions less high than those which are juris et de jure in the absence of impeachment of the credibility of the witnesses. We are not prepared to accept that proposition unqualifie
Similar: deprecation, depreciation, discrediting, disparagement
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An accusation that a person has committed a crime against the state, such as treason.
He [William Howard, 1st Viscount Stafford] is charged in the Articles of Impeachment with Contriving the Death of the King, and being at ſeveral Meetings and Conſults about the King's Death, and Hiring Perſons to kill the King; And are theſe no Overt Acts? [...] My Lords, another Exception that is t
Similar: deprecation, depreciation, discrediting, disparagement
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The act of impeaching or charging a public official with misconduct, especially if serious, often with the aim of having the official dismissed from office.
The Boſton Gazette of March 7 contains articles of impeachment of high crimes and miſdemeanors againſt Peter Oliver, Eſq; Chief Juſtice of the Superior Court of Judicature, &c., over the Province of Maſſachuſets Bay, by the Houſe of Repreſentatives in General Court aſſembled, [...] [T]he Aſſembly pe
Similar: deprecation, depreciation, discrediting, disparagement
- The state of being impeached. And Don Diego Ordoñez answered, [...] ye of Zamora have received Vellido and harbored him within your walls. [...] And for this I impeach the people of Zamora, the great as well as the little, and living and the dead. [...] Don Arias Gonzalo replied, [...] But know that you have been ill advised in
- Hindrance; impediment; obstruction. Turne thee back, / And tell thy King, I doe not ſeeke him now, / But could be willing to march on to Callice, / Without impeachment: [...]
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: arraignment, indictment, prosecution, accused, appeal, accountability, charge, accusing, accusation, accuse, recall, segregation, recusal, isolation, ouster, disqualification
Translations
Every language
noun act of calling into question or challenging the accuracy or propriety of something
| Español | impugnación |
|---|---|
| 日本語 | 糾弾 kyūdan |
| Deutsch | Abqualifizierung, Diskreditierung, Herabwürdigung, Infragestellen, Infragestellung |
noun accusation that a person has committed a crime against the state
| Deutsch | Anklage wegen Landesverrats, Beschuldigung des Landesverrats, Anklage wegen eines Staatsschutzdelikts |
|---|
noun act of impeaching or charging a public official with misconduct
| Español | impeachment, acusación de desafuero, proceso de destitución, juicio político, suspensión, impichmen |
|---|---|
| 한국어 | 탄핵 tanhaek |
| 日本語 | 弾劾 dangai |
| 中文 | 彈劾 /弹劾 tánhé |
| हिन्दी | महाभियोग mahābhiyog |
| Português | destituição, impugnação, impeachment |
| Français | destitution, impeachment |
| Deutsch | Amtsenthebung, Amtsenthebungsverfahren, Impeachment |
| Italiano | destituzione, impeachment, messa in accusa |
| Română | destituire |
| Русский | импи́чмент impíčment |
| Tiếng Việt | việc luận tội, cuộc luận tội, việc đàn hặc, cuộc đàn hặc |
| العربية | طَعْن ṭaʕn, سَحْب ثِقَة saḥb ṯiqa |
Talk about this word "impeachment." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/impeachment. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. impeachment. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/impeachment "impeachment." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/impeachment.Cite this
@misc{impeachment_2026,
title = {impeachment},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/impeachment},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
