implicate
Americanverb (used with object)
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implicates,
present (3rd person singular)
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implicated,
past participle, past
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implicating
present participle
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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.
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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
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implicatesimple
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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:
Roughly 173,000 documents released Tuesday, and additional ones which will be published online in waves over the next 12 months, could implicate two former New York mayors.
From Barron's ● Sep. 8, 2026
Driving past a crime scene shouldn’t implicate the person in the crime.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 1, 2026
But the governor's former chief of staff and a longtime California political operative, Dana Williamson, pleaded guilty to federal charges in May over a campaign finance fraud scheme that did not implicate Newsom.
From BBC ● Jun. 15, 2026
“For the first time in this litigation, the government argues that civil detention ‘does not implicate any fundamental rights’ and so the Due Process Clause affords the detained men no protections—substantive or procedural,” they wrote.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 15, 2026
The last thing I needed was to somehow implicate Denna in all this.
From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
“Once a right is established through state law,” Flores argues, “a deprivation of the right implicates federal procedural due process protection.”
From Slate ● Feb. 13, 2026
California has similarly argued that its law requiring social-media companies to disclose how they moderate content—including how they define hate speech, disinformation and extremism—is constitutional because it implicates commercial speech.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 12, 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
"The individuals implicated in these case studies are working scientists. We do not assert that they intended harm, and identifying them or their labs could expose them to harm," the report said.
From Barron's ● Sep. 11, 2026
For Roberts and the three liberal justices, that consequence implicated the separation of powers itself.
From Slate ● Sep. 1, 2026
The company has been implicated in several wildfires, including the 2018 Camp Fire that destroyed the town of Paradise, Calif., in a rural area about 90 miles north of Sacramento.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 31, 2026
In 2022, the FBI revealed that he had been implicated in the case again, through an alleged confession made by another Libyan who is facing trial in the United States.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
If Booth talked, too, he might reveal valuable information that implicated the highest officials in the Confederacy.
From "Chasing Lincoln's Killer" by James L. Swanson
Whether that’s a criminal act may be difficult to prove in court, but why would the justice want to risk implicating himself in the future?
From Salon ● Sep. 5, 2026
Sanft said there was no evidence implicating Davis in Shakur's murder other than his own statements.
From Barron's ● Aug. 31, 2026
Mr. Fatafteh confessed to the crime and his DNA was found as implicating evidence.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 19, 2025
This has led to research implicating the microbiome in everything from Crohn's disease to cancer to mental health.
From BBC ● Jun. 7, 2025
It was not as somber an occasion as Tobias’s and my interrogation, partly because there was no suspicious video footage implicating Zeke, and partly because Zeke is funny even when under truth serum.
From "Insurgent" by Veronica Roth
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.
