What does empanelled mean?
"Empanelled" is the past tense and past participle of the verb "empanel", meaning to enroll someone — most commonly a prospective juror — on an official panel or list, typically followed by their being sworn in for service. It belongs firmly to formal, legal language: judges empanel juries, courts empanel grand juries, and commissions may be described as specially empanelled for a particular inquiry. The word carries connotations of procedure, authority, and civic duty, evoking the deliberate ritual by which ordinary citizens are selected to administer justice. In British English the double-L spelling "empanelled" prevails, while American usage generally prefers "impanelled"; both spellings denote precisely the same act. Beyond jury service, the verb can describe any formal entry of names onto a roster, though such broader uses are rare today. For readers of courtroom news and legal reporting, "empanelled" is an essential term: it marks the moment a trial acquires its jury and the machinery of justice formally begins to turn.
verb (past tense and past participle of empanel)Enrolled or selected as a member of a jury, or formally entered on a list or register. Chiefly used in legal contexts, especially the swearing-in of jurors.
- (of persons, especially jurors) enrolled or selected and formally sworn in for service
- (of names or persons) entered on an official list or register
"Twelve citizens were empanelled to hear the case."
"The judge thanked the citizens who had been empanelled for jury duty that morning."
"A grand jury was empanelled to investigate the allegations."
When a judge says a jury has been 'empanelled', you are hearing one of English law's oldest surviving rituals — a word that has sworn in jurors since the Middle Ages.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of empanelled
Empanel derives from Anglo-Norman and Old French "empaneler", formed from the intensive prefix "em-" plus "panel", itself from Latin "pannus" meaning cloth — a panel originally being a piece of parchment listing jurors' names. The verb entered Middle English around the fourteenth century as part of the vocabulary of jury trial inherited with the common law. Its cognate forms include "panel" and "pane", all tracing back to the same Latin root, which is why the words for a wooden sheet and a sworn jury share an ancestor in a scrap of cloth.
Related word forms
How empanelled is actually used
Formal register, almost exclusively legal. The double-L spelling is standard in British English; American legal writing typically uses impanelled. As the past form of empanel, it functions as a finite verb ('the court empanelled twelve jurors') and as a participial adjective ('an empanelled jury').
Easily confused with empanelled
Impanelled is simply the alternative spelling of the same verb, preferred in American English, while empanelled is more common in British English; they mean exactly the same thing.
Panelled describes something fitted with panels (such as a wall or door), whereas empanelled refers specifically to enrolling people, typically jurors, on an official list.