capital punishment
death sentence
Capital punishment
"Death penalty," "Death sentence," and "Execution" redirect here. For other uses, see
Death penalty (disambiguation),
Death Sentence (disambiguation), or
Execution (disambiguation). For the Big Pun album, see
Capital Punishment (album).Capital punishment, also called the death penalty, is the execution of a convicted criminal by the state as punishment for crimes known as capital crimes or capital offences. Historically, the execution of
criminals and political opponents was used by nearly all societies—both to punish crime and to suppress
political dissent. Among countries around the world, almost all
European and many Pacific Area states (including
Australia,
New Zealand and
Timor Leste), and
Canada have abolished capital punishment. In
Latin America, most states have completely abolished the use of capital punishment, while some countries, however, like
Brazil, allow for capital punishment only in exceptional situations, such as treason committed during wartime. The
United States,
Guatemala, most of the
Caribbean and the majority of democracies in
Asia (e.g.
Japan and
India) and
Africa (e.g.
Botswana and
Zambia) retain it.
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capital punishment
Noun
1. putting a condemned person to death
(synonym) execution, executing, death penalty
(hypernym) corporal punishment
(hyponym) burning, burning at the stake
Capital punishment
capital punishment
Synonyms and related words:
beheading, burning, crucifixion, decapitation, decollation, defenestration, electrocution, execution, fusillade, garrote, gassing, hanging, hemlock, judicial murder, lapidation, necktie party, poisoning, shooting, stoning, strangling, strangulation, the ax, the block, the chair, the gallows, the gas chamber, the guillotine, the hot seat, the rope,
Source: Moby Thesaurus, which is part of the
Moby Project created by Grady Ward. In 1996 Grady Ward placed this thesaurus in the public domain.