What does criminatory mean?
"Criminatory" is a rare adjective used to describe words, statements, documents, or evidence that serve to accuse someone of a crime or otherwise implicate them in wrongdoing. It belongs to the same family as "criminal" and "incriminate," all descending from the Latin crimen, meaning charge or accusation. In practice the word appears almost exclusively in formal or legal contexts, where it conveys the sense of pointing a finger at a suspect — a criminatory remark, for example, is one that lays blame rather than merely describing events. Today it has largely been displaced by its much commoner synonyms "incriminating" and "incriminatory," which carry identical meaning and appear routinely in journalism, courtroom argument, and everyday speech about evidence and guilt. Encountering "criminatory" is therefore most likely in older legal writing or deliberately formal prose, where it lends a slightly antique, precise tone to any discussion of accusation.
adjectiveRelating to, or involving, the accusation or charging of someone with a crime; having the character of an incrimination.
- Serving to accuse, charge, or implicate someone with a crime or offence.
"The leaked memo contained criminatory remarks that prosecutors later cited in their case."
"The defence argued that the witness's testimony was more criminatory than factual."
"Investigators sifted through the correspondence for anything criminatory."
Before 'incriminating evidence' took over the courtroom, English speakers once reached for this now nearly forgotten cousin of 'criminal' to point the finger.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of criminatory
"Criminatory" derives from the Latin crimen, meaning "charge" or "accusation" (the root also giving us "crime," "criminal," and "criminate"). It entered English as a learned formation alongside related terms such as "criminate" and "crimination." Its sibling word "incriminatory," formed with the Latin prefix in-, became the dominant form, leaving "criminatory" as a rare variant largely confined to legal register.
How criminatory is actually used
A rare and somewhat archaic term found mainly in formal legal writing and older texts; in modern usage 'incriminating' or 'incriminatory' is strongly preferred.
Easily confused with criminatory
'Criminal' describes something relating to crime or punishable by law (or a person who has committed one), whereas 'criminatory' specifically describes something that accuses or implicates someone of a crime.
'Incriminatory' is the far more common adjective for evidence or statements that implicate someone in wrongdoing; 'criminatory' is its rarer synonym.