impunity

CEFRC1

/ɪmˈpjuːnɪti/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

01
noun
Freedom from punishment for doing something wrong.
02
noun
Extra detail
Freedom from punishment or retribution; security from any reprisal or injurious consequences of an action, behaviour etc.

Examples

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Deep Dive

Extra meaning

In context

I must not only punish but punish with impunity. A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser.
Maternus, a private ſoldier, of a daring boldneſs above his ſtation,[…] plundered with impunity the rich and defenceleſs cities of Gaul and Spain.
The remoteness of the prison made the authorities feel they could ignore us with impunity.

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The word in print, with each source given in full.

Maternus, a private ſoldier, of a daring boldneſs above his ſtation,[…] plundered with impunity the rich and defenceleſs cities of Gaul and Spain.
1776, Edward Gibbon, chapter IV, in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Strahan; and T[homas] Cadell, […], →OCLC, page 91
I must not only punish but punish with impunity. A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser.
1846, Edgar Allan Poe, The Cask of Amontillado
The remoteness of the prison made the authorities feel they could ignore us with impunity.
1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela, London: Abacus, published 2010, page 495
[...] and the rebuilding of Birmingham New Street with its Taurus Bar ("where one for the road - the railroad - can be taken with impunity").
2021 March 10, Greg Morse, “Telling the railway's story on film”, in RAIL, number 926, pages 44–45
If Russia’s President Vladimir Putin could order his troops into his neighbor with impunity, surely China’s President Xi Jinping might finally decide to recover Taiwan, the island province that has remained staunchly independent ever since Mao Zedong’s Red Army finished his conquest of the mainland in 1949.
2022 August 30, Donald Kirk, “Could China invade South Korea after Taiwan?”, in The Hill, archived from the original on 30 Aug 2022

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From Middle French impunité, from Latin impunitas, from impunis (“without punishment”).