What does criminating mean?
"Criminating" is the present participle of the verb "criminate," meaning to accuse a person of a crime or to condemn their conduct as criminal. It derives from the Latin crimen ("charge" or "accusation"), the same root behind "crime," "criminal," and "recriminate." The word belongs largely to formal legal register and appears most often in older or scholarly writing rather than everyday speech, where "accusing," "charging," or "indicting" have taken its place. To say someone is criminating another is to portray them as engaged in the act of laying criminal blame — a step beyond mere criticism and toward formal accusation. Its rarity makes it useful chiefly for readers of legal history or literature, where it signals a deliberate, weighty tone. A related word, "incriminating," describes evidence that suggests guilt, whereas "criminating" describes the accuser's act itself — a distinction worth keeping clear when encountering either term.
verbPresent participle of "criminate": to accuse someone of a crime, or to charge or condemn a person's conduct as criminal.
- To accuse someone of a crime or offense.
- To charge or condemn conduct as criminal; to bring a criminal charge against.
"The prosecutor spent hours criminating the defendants before the grand jury."
"The pamphlet was less an argument than an exercise in criminating one's political opponents."
"Counsel objected that the witness had gone beyond testifying and was openly criminating the accused."
Before "incriminating" took over English courtrooms, its shorter sibling "criminate" was doing the accusing — and it still survives in legal writing today.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of criminating
"Criminating" comes from the verb "criminate," which English adopted in the early modern period from Latin criminari, "to accuse," itself derived from crimen, meaning a charge, accusation, or fault. This same Latin root produced the familiar words "crime" and "criminal," which entered English via Old French, as well as "incriminate" and "recriminate." While "crime" flourished, "criminate" remained confined to formal legal usage, leaving "criminating" as a rare participle encountered mainly in legal and literary contexts.
Related word forms
How criminating is actually used
"Criminating" is rare and formal in modern usage, appearing mostly in legal and historical texts. In everyday English, "accusing" or "incriminating" has almost entirely displaced it.
Easily confused with criminating
"Incriminating" means serving as evidence of guilt, while "criminating" means actively accusing someone of a crime.