implicate
Suggest someone's guilt
To implicate someone is to show their involvement in something, usually wrongdoing: The documents implicate several executives in the fraud scheme.
Evidence implicates; so do confessions that name accomplices.
More broadly, to implicate is to involve as a consequence or necessary condition: The study implicates stress in heart disease.
The noun implication carries both senses—involvement in wrongdoing, or something suggested without being stated directly.
Show involvement in wrongdoing
- inculpateAccuse of wrongdoing
- accuseClaim someone did wrong
- chargeCost or accusation
- allegeAssert without substantiation
indict · arraign · prosecute · finger · name · link to · lay blame · pin on
Crime's willing helper
- co-conspiratorPartner in wrongdoing
- conspiratorOne planning in secret
- collusionFraudulent secret cooperation
- abettingHelping commit wrongdoing
accessory · connivance · involvement · confederate · enabler · facilitator · insider · partaker
Catch in interwoven strands
entrap · tangle · web · mire · complicate · compromise · intertwine · bind
Indicate without stating
- suggestOffer an idea indirectly
- indicateSignal or point to
- hintIndirect suggestion
- insinuateSuggest without directly stating
signify · denote · connote · intimate · allude · presuppose · entail · mean
Secondary consequence of action
- repercussionIndirect result of action
- entailRequire as consequence
- involveTo contain as part
- result inCause to happen
lead to · give rise to · bring about · set in motion · chain reaction · ripple effect · domino effect · fallout
incriminate
Show involvement in wrongdoing
allege · indict · arraign · prosecute · finger · name · link to · lay blame · pin on
accomplice
Crime's willing helper
- co-conspiratorPartner in wrongdoing
- conspiratorOne planning in secret
- collusionFraudulent secret cooperation
abetting · accessory · connivance · involvement · confederate · enabler · facilitator · insider · partaker · silent partner
enmesh
Catch in interwoven strands
ensnare · entrap · tangle · web · mire · complicate · compromise · intertwine · bind · connect
imply
Indicate without stating
insinuate · signify · denote · connote · intimate · allude · presuppose · entail · mean · betoken
ramification
Secondary consequence of action
- repercussionIndirect result of action
- entailRequire as consequence
- involveTo contain as part
result in · lead to · give rise to · bring about · set in motion · chain reaction · ripple effect · domino effect · fallout · aftermath
implicateextricate
Free from entanglement
disentangle · dissociate · disassociate · exclude · separate
- legal implicationsPotential outcomes affecting rights
- tax implicationsFinancial effects of transactions
- moral implicationsRight-wrong considerations of actions
- economic implicationsMonetary effects of actions
- ethical implicationsMoral significance of choices
- health implicationsEffects on bodily welfare
implication, implications, implicated, implicating, implicates