omertà
Syllables: om·er·tà/ˌəʊmɛːˈtɑː//ˌoʊmɛɹˈtɑ/
omertà noun: a code of silence amongst members of the Mafia that forbids divulging insider secrets to law enforcement, often also followed outside of the organization for fear of retaliation.
Noun
omertà (countable and uncountable, plural omertàs)
- A code of silence amongst members of the Mafia that forbids divulging insider secrets to law enforcement, often also followed outside of the organization for fear of retaliation.
- Here we have the unfortunate heirloom of corrupt government—Omertà (a Sicilian word, meaning silence on the part of witnesses to a deed of blood). The Government arrests a delinquent and has him tried before a court; but the latter, for want of witnesses, cannot condemn. "We dare not speak," say...1863 November 7, “The State of Italy”, in Public Opinion: […], volume IV, number III, London: Cox and Wyman, […], →OCLC, page 520, column 1
- Where such a thing as Sicilian omertà exists, the most perfect laws, and the most honestly-intentioned executive in the world cannot escape falling into errors.1864, Frances Power Cobbe, “Italy Tried by Jury”, in Italics. Brief Notes on Politics, People, and Places in Italy, in 1864, London: Trübner and Co., […], →OCLC, page 107
- Synonyms:
- Sicilian code
- Any code of silence (especially about something illegal or secret), or refusal to talk openly about something.
- The unspoken emotions he [John McGahern] dissects expose a repressive world of ordinary people from both sides in the civil war of 1922: of policemen, nurses and teachers; of ancient hatreds passed down from generation to generation, submerged in the Irish omertàs which make taboo so many aspects...1997, Ian Hill, “The Province of Ulster [Monaghan]”, in Irish Counties: A Journey into the History, Culture and Tradition of Ireland, London: Salamander Books, →ISBN, page 89
- There was a time that high-profile killings such as the 1968 assassinations of Robert F[rancis] Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. brought passionate cries for limitations on handguns. A bipartisan omerta now smothers the issue.2006 October 27, Ross K. Baker, “Guns—the dead issue”, in Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, Calif.: Los Angeles Times Communications, →ISSN, →OCLC, page A29, columns 1–2
omertà meaning in Arabic, Indonesian and Persian
omertà in Arabic
- code of silence amongst members of the Mafia
- أُومِيرْتَا omertā
omertà in Indonesian
- code of silence amongst members of the Mafia
- omerta
omertà in Persian
- code of silence amongst members of the Mafia
- اومرتا omertâ
Examples of omertà in a sentence
- Here we have the unfortunate heirloom of corrupt government—Omertà (a Sicilian word, meaning silence on the part of witnesses to a deed of blood).1863 November 7, “The State of Italy”, in Public Opinion: […], volume IV, number III, London: Cox and Wyman, […], →OCLC, page 520, column 1:
- Vengeance, however tardy, and obtained by whatever amount of treachery and striking from behind, is in honourable conformity with omertà; but there must be no appeal to law.1877 August, T. Adolphus Trollope, “The ‘Mafia’ and ‘Omertà’ in Society”, in Sylvanus Urban [pseudonym], editor, The Gentleman’s Magazine...
- Of all the media outlets, the New York Times was the only one to mention the close-hold embargo: […] The FDA [Food and Drug Administration] was not pleased that the omertà had been broken.2016 October, Charles Seife, “How the FDA Manipulates the Media [print version: How to Spin the Science News]”, in Mariette DiChristina...
- Despite criticising what he [Sadiq Khan] called an "omertà" in British politics about Brexit, he expressed some sympathy for the Labour leader Keir [Starmer]'s wariness about the issue.2023 October 6, Heather Stewart, quoting Sadiq Khan, “‘Choose London’: Sadiq Khan steps up efforts to lure EU citizens post-Brexit”, in...
Synonyms of omertà
Forms of omertà
| plural | omertàs |
|---|---|
| alternative form | omerta |
Origin of omertà
PIE word *dʰéǵʰōm Unadapted borrowing from Italian omertà; further etymology uncertain—the following have been suggested: * from Spanish hombredad (“manliness”) (archaic), with the spelling aligned with Sicilian omu (“man”). Hombredad is derived from hombre (“man”) + -edad (variant of -dad (suffix forming nouns denoting a state of being)). However, the expected Sicilian output from a Spanish borrowing would have been *ummirità ~ *ummiritati. * from Sicilian umirtà (“humility”) (referring to the Mafia code’s requirement of obedience to the leader), from Latin humilitās (“obedience, submission”), from humilis (“humble; abject, submissive”) + -tās (suffix forming feminine abstract nouns denoting a state of being); with humilis from humus (“floor, ground; earth, soil”) + -ilis (suffix forming an adjective of relation). If so, the English word is a doublet of humility. However, the Oxford English Dictionary takes the view that this is “not well supported by the geographical distribution of the word”.
Words that rhyme with omertà
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- Moskva
- Nansha
- rah
- shikar
- ah
- aha
- alhamdulillah
- Amapá
- Benoit
- Bogotá
- fa
- galah
- goombah
- huzzah
- inshallah
- Jah
- la
- lah-di-dah
- ma
- moire
- mudra
- ménage à trois
- na
- ooh la la
- pa
- schwa
- shah
- Shangri-La
- sis boom bah
- ta
- wah
- Xisha
- 'za
- allah
- ar
- arthra
- Aymara
- baa
- bah
- Bogota
- boyar
- bra
- cha
- cha cha cha
- chamar
- che sara sara
- chicken paw
- da
Questions about omertà
- What does omertà mean?
- Omertà means a code of silence amongst members of the Mafia that forbids divulging insider secrets to law enforcement, often also followed outside of the organization for fear of retaliation.
- What is omertà in Arabic?
- Omertà in Arabic is أُومِيرْتَا (omertā). See Omertà meaning in Arabic.
- How do you use omertà in a sentence?
- Here we have the unfortunate heirloom of corrupt government—Omertà (a Sicilian word, meaning silence on the part of witnesses to a deed of blood).
- What part of speech is omertà?
- Omertà is a noun.
- How do you pronounce omertà?
- Omertà is pronounced /ˌəʊmɛːˈtɑː/ (UK).
- What is the plural of omertà?
- The plural of omertà is omertàs.
Words near omertà in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: omertà (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-omertà.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-omertà.wav.
Cite this entry: “omertà.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/omert%C3%A0. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.