Word.ws English Dictionary

amnesty

/ˈæm.nɪ.sti/

amnesty noun: forgetfulness; cessation of remembrance of wrong; oblivion.

Noun

amnesty (countable and uncountable, plural amnesties)

  1. Forgetfulness; cessation of remembrance of wrong; oblivion.
  2. An act of the sovereign power granting oblivion, or a general pardon, for a past offense, as to subjects concerned in an insurrection.
    • Argentina has seen few legal issues as contentiously debated as these two laws of amnesty during the last two decades. […] Pursuant to the Convention on Forced Disappearance, amnesties may not contemplate a statutory limitation period less than that corresponding to the gravest crime punishable by...Fall 2007, Gaspar Forteza, “Regarding Simón y otros: Accountability in Argentina and International Human Rights as Domestic Positive Law”, in FIU Law Review, volume 3, number 1, →ISSN, archived from...
    • Russian lawmakers backed a sweeping amnesty law Wednesday that could see jailed members of the Pussy Riot punk protest band released early and arrested Greenpeace activists avoiding prison, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported.2013 December 18, CNN Staff, “Russia amnesty could free Pussy Riot, benefit Greenpeace members”, in CNN, archived from the original on 07 Mar 2021

Verb

amnesty (third-person singular simple present amnesties, present participle amnestying, simple past and past participle amnestied)

  1. (transitive) To grant a pardon (to a group).
    • Shortly after the end of military rule in 1983, the Argentinean National Congress passed legislation that effectively amnestied many persons who allegedly committed human rights violations such as torture, extra-judicial killing, and forced disappearance. […] In other words, a government may be...Fall 2007, Gaspar Forteza, “Regarding Simón y otros: Accountability in Argentina and International Human Rights as Domestic Positive Law”, in FIU Law Review, volume 3, number 1, →ISSN, archived from...
    • “100 miles of border wall in exchange for amnestying millions of illegals. So if we grant citizenship to a BILLION foreigners, maybe we can finally get a full border wall,” Coulter wrote in another tweet.2019 January 19, Stephen Collinson and Maegan Vazquez, quoting Ann Coulter, “Trump’s offer of temporary protection for immigrants to end shutdown is a ‘non-starter,’ say Democrats”, in CNN, archived...

Proper noun capitalized: Amnesty

Amnesty

  1. Amnesty International, a UK-based charity.

amnesty meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

amnesty in Hindi

act of the sovereign power
आम माफ़ी ām māfī

amnesty in Tamil

பொது மன்னிப்பு, பொதுப் பொறுத்தல், பொதுமன்னிப்பு, அரசியல் குற்ற மன்னிப்பு, கண்டுங்காணதது போலிருத்தல், மறதி

amnesty in Urdu

act of the sovereign power
عام مُعَافی 'ām mu'āfī, مُعَافی mu'āfī, عَفْو 'afv

amnesty in Bengali

act of the sovereign power
ক্ষমা khoma
More languagesFewer languages
amnesty in Malayalam
രാജ്യദ്രോഹികൾക്ക് പൊതുവേ നല്കുന്ന മാപ്പ്, പൊതുമാപ്പ്, ശിക്ഷ ഇളവുചെയ്യൽ
amnesty in Kannada
ಕ್ಷಮಾದಾನ, ಬಿಡುಗಡೆ, ಆರೋಪದಿಂದ ಕ್ಷಮೆ, ಮುಕ್ತಿ
amnesty in Pashto
عفو 'áfwa
amnesty in Arabic
عَفْو ʕafw
amnesty in Malay
pengampunan
amnesty in Persian
فراموشی farâmôši
amnesty in Thai
นิรโทษกรรม ní-rá-tôot-sà-gam
amnesty in Vietnamese
sự ân xá
amnesty in Myanmar
လွတ်ငြိမ်းချမ်းသာခွင့် lwatngrim:hkyam:sahkwang.

Forms of amnesty

Noun
pluralamnesties
Verb
third-person singular presentamnesties
present participleamnestying
past participleamnestied
pastamnestied

Plural of amnesty: amnesties

Origin of amnesty

Borrowed from Middle French amnestie (Modern French amnistie), a borrowing from Latin amnestia, itself a borrowing from Ancient Greek ἀμνηστία (amnēstía).

Words formed from amnesty

Questions about amnesty

What does amnesty mean?
Amnesty means forgetfulness; cessation of remembrance of wrong; oblivion.
What is amnesty in Hindi?
Amnesty in Hindi is आम माफ़ी (ām māfī). See Amnesty meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is amnesty?
Amnesty can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce amnesty?
Amnesty is pronounced /ˈæm.nɪ.sti/.
What is the plural of amnesty?
The plural of amnesty is amnesties.

Words near amnesty in the dictionary

  1. amnestical
  2. amnestically
  3. amnestics
  4. amnestied
  5. amnesties
  6. amnesty
  7. amnestying
  8. amnia
  9. amnicolid
  10. amnicolids
  11. amnicolist

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: amnesty (page history and authors); Amnesty (page history and authors); amnesty (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); amnesty (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); amnesty (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “amnesty.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/amnesty. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.