impunity
/ɪmˈpjuːnɪti/
impunity noun: exemption from punishment.
Noun
impunity (countable and uncountable, plural impunities)
- Exemption from punishment.
- Freedom from punishment or retribution; security from any reprisal or injurious consequences of an action, behaviour etc.
- Maternus, a private ſoldier, of a daring boldneſs above his ſtation,[…] plundered with impunity the rich and defenceleſs cities of Gaul and Spain.1776, Edward Gibbon, chapter IV, in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Strahan; and T[homas] Cadell, […], →OCLC, page 91
- I must not only punish but punish with impunity. A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser.1846, Edgar Allan Poe, The Cask of Amontillado
impunity meaning in Tamil, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali
impunity in Tamil
- தண்டனையின்மை, இழப்பு விலக்கீடு, தண்டனையினின்று விலக்கீட்டுரிமை, விடுபாட்டுறுதி
impunity in Marathi
- दंडमुक्ती
impunity in Urdu
- عافیت, چھٹکارہ, ضرر
impunity in Bengali
- শাস্তি থেকে রেহাই, মুক্তি
More languagesFewer languages
- impunity in Malayalam
- അനപായം, അക്ഷതി, ശിക്ഷാഭീതിയില്ലാത്ത
- impunity in Kannada
- ಹೊರತುಪಡಿಕೆ, ನಿರ್ಭೀತಿ, ನಿರ್ಭಯ, ಶಿಕ್ಷೆಯ ಭಯವಿಲ್ಲದಿರುವುದು
- impunity in Nepali
- दण्डमुक्तता
- impunity in Indonesian
- impunitas
Examples of impunity in a sentence
- The remoteness of the prison made the authorities feel they could ignore us with impunity.1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela, London: Abacus, published 2010, page 495:
- The brewing conflict between locals and the whalers prompted then-sheriff Ari Magnússon to draw up a decree that allowed Basques to be killed with impunity in the district.2015 April 29, Ashifa Kassam, “Basques safe in Iceland as district repeals decree to kill them on sight”, in The Guardian, archived from...
- [...] and the rebuilding of Birmingham New Street with its Taurus Bar ("where one for the road - the railroad - can be taken with impunity").2021 March 10, Greg Morse, “Telling the railway's story on film”, in RAIL, number 926, pages 44–45:
- It said that Russian troops were massing at the border and preparing strikes on Ukraine with impunity.2024 June 4, Maria Varenikova, Constant Méheut, Aric Toler, “Ukraine Strikes Into Russia With Western Weapons, Official Says”, in The New...
Forms of impunity
| plural | impunities |
|---|
Origin of impunity
From Middle French impunité, from Latin impunitas, from impunis (“without punishment”).
Questions about impunity
- What does impunity mean?
- Impunity means exemption from punishment.
- What is impunity in Tamil?
- Impunity in Tamil is தண்டனையின்மை, இழப்பு விலக்கீடு, தண்டனையினின்று விலக்கீட்டுரிமை. See Impunity meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use impunity in a sentence?
- The remoteness of the prison made the authorities feel they could ignore us with impunity.
- What part of speech is impunity?
- Impunity is a noun.
- How do you pronounce impunity?
- Impunity is pronounced /ɪmˈpjuːnɪti/.
- What is the plural of impunity?
- The plural of impunity is impunities.
Words near impunity in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: impunity (page history and authors); impunity (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); impunity (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); impunity (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); impunity (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); impunity (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); impunity (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); impunity (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-impunity.wav.
Cite this entry: “impunity.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/impunity. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.