impunity
37
8.3
- noun
- /ɪmˈpjunɪti/
- However, in most parts of the tropics, poachers enter and leave reserves with impunity.
- operate with impunity
- violate laws with impunity
- virtual impunity
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Watch on YouTubeWell, as it turns out, police impunity is written into our laws.
- Well, as it turns out, police impunity is written into our laws.
- Why do these problems persist with so much impunity and so little accountability?
- It's about one man violating the law with impunity over and over and over again.
- And that has allowed the SRA to continue with near impunity.
- So maybe the police in America do kill black people with impunity is a thought that crosses your mind.
- These people are wrecking so many lives with impunity.
- That's devastating to me that a person could do that with impunity.
- Trump clearly violated that norm without very much consequence, almost with impunity.
- Cruelty is her brand and she does it under the guise of Christianity with impunity.
- Bosses who were so powerful, so wealthy, and lived their lives in absolute impunity.
- But then often times secrecy gets used really just as a way to perpetuate impunity.
- We cannot treat fellow citizens in in this way, and we can't do it with impunity.
- These individuals claim their freedom of expression is being denied when in fact they seek impunity for the media to manipulate the truth.
- They would put a stop, or at least they would pause the cycle of account of abuse, impunity and secrecy of the Obama administration.
- And so I think what what the people who run that country learned was we can do this with impunity.
- That space in the middle is where rape and domestic violence and abuse happens with impunity under the law because this is equal treatment.
Examples
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Government officials often act with impunity, avoiding the consequences of their actions.
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Men who kill for the government do so with impunity.
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Well, as it turns out, police impunity is written into our laws.
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And it is through fighting impunity that we can be effective in in doing so.
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As we have the most power, we may move with impunity.
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With respect to the issue of impunity, the recent record is less promising.
Academic text (2000) -
The United States cannot withdraw with impunity from involvement in world affairs.
Academic text (1992) -
Why do these problems persist with so much impunity and so little accountability?
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Such removal of criminal responsibility may create a sense of impunity among guilty law-enforcement officials.
Academic text (1991) -
The aim of this change was to end the impunity of judges who sold their verdicts to business interests.
Academic text (2002)
Antonyms
613
1.3
An action that makes someone suffer for breaking a rule, like a fine or time in prison
183
6.1
Being responsible for your actions and having to explain them to other people
How Protected
Surface Forms
Morphology
impunity = im + puni + ity
The negative prefix 'im-' and noun-forming suffix '-ity' are clear, and learners familiar with 'punish' can infer the meaning, but the root 'puni-' is a non-productive Latin combining form (not a standalone English word), so the relation is not fully transparent.
Etymology
Impunity comes from the part in- meaning 'not' and the same root as punish, so it literally means 'not punished', which is why someone acting with impunity is free from punishment or consequences.