Amnesty
n.hopeful, calmformal
What it means
An official decision to forgive specified offenses and waive punishment.
Reach for it when describing a legal or political act with clearly bounded eligibility
The amnesty allowed displaced families to return without prosecution.
Choose between these
6- warm
moral or personal release matters
not when Forgiveness lacks legal authority and defined scope.
- professional
protection from prosecution is the specific mechanism
not when Immunity can be conditional and is not itself forgiveness.
- professional
waiver
a requirement or claim is formally surrendered
not when A waiver concerns rules or rights, not necessarily an offense.
- formal
punishment is reduced from mercy
not when Clemency does not erase liability and can be individual.
- formal
authority forgives a named person's offense
not when A pardon is usually individual, while amnesty covers a class.
- formal
punishment is postponed or canceled temporarily
not when A reprieve is narrower and may only delay the sentence.
Said against
3- prosecution
- punishment
- condemnation
It naturally appears in
3- grant amnesty
The agreement will grant amnesty for specified nonviolent offenses.
- general amnesty
A general amnesty followed the transfer of power.
- amnesty program
The tax amnesty program published exact eligibility dates.
Where this comes from
- wiktionary, English noun sense: official pardon for a class of offenses opens in a new tab · retrieved 2026-07-26
The definition and the example on this page are written here. The dictionaries above ground which meaning is being described, not the wording.