complainant
/kəmˈpleɪnənt/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.09 in modern English
17
Scrabble Score
11
Letters
3
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An alleged victim in a criminal investigation or trial.
Example Sentences
- "1708-1714 Jeremy Collier, Ecclesiastical History of Great Britain Eager complainants […] in the dispute."
- "Heading the complainants is Sir Edward le Breton, Lord of the Manor of Loders, and a member of Bridport Rural Council."
- "The Southern Region takes, in the main, a candid line with its public. [...] An ill-informed attempt to blackguard the railway publicly is likely to see the complainant put politely—but very firmly—in his place."
- "It's hard for Americans to understand the patriotism that can get bound up in place-names. We're a young country. We're also accustomed, in our cockeyed cowboy fashion, to everything else revolving around us, so we can afford to let slide the fact that, say, the Gulf of Mexico isn't called the Gulf of America. (Although, according to John Hébert, that is the pet issue of one frequent complainant to the Board on Geographic Names.)"
Etymology
From Old French complaignant, present participle of complaindre.
Origin
- Source language: Old French
Word Breakdown
- Root: complaignant