Definition of IMPEACHMENT

impeachment

Plural: impeachments

Noun

  • a formal document charging a public official with misconduct in office
  • The act of calling into question or challenging the accuracy or propriety of something.
  • A demonstration in a court of law, or before another finder of fact, that a witness was ingenuine before, and is therefore less likely to tell the truth now.
  • The act of calling into question or challenging the accuracy or propriety of something.
  • An accusation that a person has committed a crime against the state, such as treason.
  • The act of calling into question or challenging the accuracy or propriety of something.
  • The act of impeaching or charging a public official with misconduct, especially if serious, often with the aim of having the official dismissed from office.
  • The act of calling into question or challenging the accuracy or propriety of something.
  • The state of being impeached.
  • Hindrance; impediment; obstruction.

Origin / Etymology

From Middle English empechement (“hindrance, impediment, obstacle, obstruction; legal accusation or charge; act of calling into question or discrediting; challenge to a claim or right”), and thence either:
* from Middle English empechen, empeschen, empesche, enpechen, impechen (“to cause to get stuck; of a ship: to run aground; to block, obstruct; to hinder, impede; to prevent; to interfere with, harm; to criticize, disparage; to bring charges against; to formally accuse of treason or another high crime”) (from Anglo-Norman empecher, Old French empechier, empeechier) + -ment (suffix forming action nouns, concrete nouns, and nouns indicating a result or a condition or state); or
* from Old French empechement, empeechement, empeschement (“obstacle”) (modern French empêchement (“impediment, obstacle”)), from empeechier (“to fetter; to hinder”), empescher (“to inhibit, prevent”) + -ment (suffix forming nouns from verbs).
The English word is analysable as impeach + -ment.
Old French empechier, empeechier and empescher (compare modern French empêcher) are derived from Late Latin impedicāre (“to catch; to entangle”), present active infinitive of Latin impedicō (“to entangle; to fetter”), from im- (variant of in-) + pedica (“fetter, shackle; snare, trap”) (from pēs (“foot”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ped- (“to step, walk; to fall, stumble”)) + -ō.
In senses 1.2 (“accusation that a person has committed a crime”) and 1.3 (“act of impeaching or charging a public official with misconduct”), the word has been used in place of Latin impetere, the present active infinitive of impetō (“to assail, attack, rush upon”).

Scrabble Score: 22

impeachment is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL word
impeachment is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
impeachment is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 26

impeachment is a valid Words With Friends word