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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

condemn.

To strongly criticise or denounce; to excoriate.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/kənˈdɛm/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/kənˈdɪm/pin-pen-merger/kənˈdem/Australia, New-Zealand
  1. To strongly criticise or denounce; to excoriate.

    transitive
    The president condemned the terrorists.
  2. To judicially pronounce (someone) guilty.

    transitive
  3. To judicially announce a verdict upon a finding of guilt; To sentence

    transitive
    The judge condemned him to death.
    She was condemned to life in prison.
  4. To confer eternal divine punishment upon.

    transitive
  5. To destine to experience bad circumstances; to doom.

    figuratively · transitive
    Too many people are condemned to a life of poverty.
  6. To declare something to be unfit for use, or further use.

    transitive
  7. To declare something to be unfit for use, or further use. To adjudge (a building) as being unfit for habitation.

    transitive
    The house was condemned after it was badly damaged by fire.
  8. To declare something to be unfit for use, or further use. To adjudge (building or construction work) as of unsatisfactory quality, requiring the work to be redone.

    transitive
  9. To declare something to be unfit for use, or further use. To adjudge (food or drink) as being unfit for human consumption.

    transitive
  10. To declare something to be unfit for use, or further use. To declare (a vessel) to be unfit for service.

    transitive
  11. To determine and declare (property) to be assigned to public use. See eminent domain.

    transitive
  12. To declare (a vessel) to be forfeited to the government or to be a prize.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱe? Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm Proto-Italic *kom Proto-Italic *kom- Latin con- Proto-Indo-European *deh₂- Proto-Indo-European *deh₂p-der. Proto-Indo-European *dh₂pnóm Proto-Italic *dapnom Latin damnum Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Indo-European *-h₂tiinflu. Proto-Italic *-ājō Proto-Italic *-āō Latin -ō Latin damnō Latin condemnō Proto-Italic *-āzi ▲ Latin -ereinflu. Latin -āre Latin condemnārebor. Old French condamnerbor. Middle English condempnen English condemn From Middle English condempnen, from Old French condamner, from Latin condemnāre (“to sentence, condemn, blame”), from com- + damnāre (“to harm, condemn, damn”), from damnum (“damage, injury, loss”). Displaced native Middle English fordemen (from Old English fordeman (“condemn, sentence, doom”) > Modern English fordeem.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.