implicate
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to show to be also involved, usually in an incriminating manner.
to be implicated in a crime.
-
to imply as a necessary circumstance, or as something to be inferred or understood.
-
to connect or relate to intimately; affect as a consequence.
The malfunctioning of one part of the nervous system implicates another part.
-
Archaic. to fold or twist together; intertwine; interlace.
verb
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to show to be involved, esp in a crime
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to involve as a necessary inference; imply
his protest implicated censure by the authorities
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to affect intimately
this news implicates my decision
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rare to intertwine or entangle
Synonym Usage
See involve.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
implicatesimple
-
implicatessimple
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have implicatedperfect
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has implicatedperfect
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am implicatingprogressive
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are implicatingprogressive
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is implicatingprogressive
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have been implicatingperfect progressive
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has been implicatingperfect progressive
Past
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implicatedsimple
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had implicatedperfect
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was implicatingprogressive
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were implicatingprogressive
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had been implicatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of implicate
First recorded in 1530–40; from Latin implicātus, past participle of implicāre “to interweave,” equivalent to im- im- 1 + plicā(re) “to fold” + -ātus -ate 1; see ply 2
Explanation
The verb implicate means "to connect or involve in something." For example, your cousins might implicate you in the planning of a big party for your grandparents. Implicate comes from the Latin word implicare, meaning "to entwine, involve." When you implicate someone, you bring him or her into a group or to pitch in on a project. Implicate can have criminal connotations when it means "to connect in an incriminating manner," like when detectives figure out who drove the getaway car in the bank robbery — that person will be implicated for his or her role in the crime.
Vocabulary lists containing implicate
Just Mercy
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Monster
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Wasn't Me: The Lingo of Laying Blame
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
He claimed the department sought to make an example of him because he refused to implicate his superiors in wrongdoing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
Although many people with security clearances are government employees, millions of private citizens also need clearances to work on military matters or to represent criminal defendants charged with crimes that implicate sensitive information.
From Slate ● May 15, 2026
The 49-year-old has vowed to implicate officials in the current government in the case.
From Barron's ● Mar. 20, 2026
The files do not implicate Clinton in any wrongdoing; he has not been accused of misconduct by Epstein's victims who have come forward so far, and there is no proof he knew of his crimes.
From BBC ● Feb. 26, 2026
It’s a petty and spiteful trick, designed to implicate Matthews, who will be onstage in the role of Richard Coyle during Our American Cousin.
From "Lincoln's Last Days: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever" by Bill O'Reilly
No evidence has been released that implicates Zelensky personally in graft or any other criminal activity.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 23, 2025
“If you’re in a community where everyone’s supposed to be taking care of you and you’re supposed to be taking care of them, if you have a problem, that implicates your whole group,” Hall said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 21, 2025
It implicates Senussi, Masud and the two Libyans who faced trial over Lockerbie at a Scottish Court in the Netherlands more than 20 years ago.
From BBC ● Mar. 18, 2025
China rejected the accusation, and experts say that Palau has not presented any evidence that implicates Beijing.
From New York Times ● Jun. 2, 2024
Booth also has left behind clues—among them a business card bearing the name J. Harrison Surratt and a letter from Samuel Arnold, who had been part of the kidnapping plot, that implicates Michael O’Laughlen.
From "Lincoln's Last Days: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever" by Bill O'Reilly
A cyclospora outbreak has depressed U.S. produce sales and forced some farmers to destroy crops, though domestic crops haven't been implicated.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
The regulatory agency continues to work with Taylor Farms to ensure “product implicated in this outbreak has been removed from the market,” the regulatory agency stated.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
“Detection is really difficult, and most often the produce item being implicated has been consumed, and there is nothing left to test.”
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 20, 2026
Last year, he was also implicated in a broader kickbacks-for-contracts case, along with Socialist Party number three Santos Cerdán.
From BBC ● May 30, 2026
Among the people she implicated as witches were two old women who lived several doors from us, from whom I had often received morsels of food.
From "Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography" by Mark Mathabane
It said the investigators had "opted for the easy course by implicating a poor servant of the house and demonising him".
From BBC ● Nov. 25, 2025
Mr. Fatafteh confessed to the crime and his DNA was found as implicating evidence.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 19, 2025
Months after his arrest alongside Pearce and Osborn, he provided a statement through an attorney implicating the other men.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 18, 2025
Syed, whose conviction was vacated in 2022 after evidence implicating two other suspects was found to have been improperly withheld, had that vacancy overturned in March of last year by the state’s appellate court.
From Salon ● Aug. 31, 2024
After all, if he had made such a mess out of his own life so far, what was the point of implicating others?
From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
