treason
/ˈtriːzn/ (bre, ipa) · /ˈtriːzn/ (ame, ipa) · /ˈtrē-zᵊn/ (ame, mw)
treason — noun
1. the serious crime of acting against your own country — for example, by helping a
the serious crime of acting against your own country — for example, by helping a country it is fighting, or by trying to remove its government by force.
Christopher was hanged for treason after passing army secrets to enemy spies.
fixed phrase: hanged for treason
Selling military maps to a foreign government during wartime is treason in most countries.
subject + is treason — defining a specific act as the crime
The general was put on trial for treason after he tried to overthrow the president.
Under the old law, even speaking against the king could count as treason.
Sana refused to share the intelligence files, knowing that to do so would be treason.
- sedition
narrower — urging people to rebel against the state, often by speech, without the open acts of war that treason involves
- high treason
older legal term for the most serious form of treason, typically involving the head of state
- loyalty
the everyday opposite — staying faithful to one's country
- patriotism
active devotion to one's country, the moral counterweight to the crime of treason
文法句型
commit treason
an act of treason
用法筆記
Uncountable in this legal sense — say 'commit treason', not 'commit a treason'. The crime is defined against a state, so the object of the betrayal is almost always 'one's country' or 'the government', not an individual.
常見錯誤
2. a serious breaking of trust toward a person, group, or cause that one is expecte
a serious breaking of trust toward a person, group, or cause that one is expected to be loyal to — used outside the legal sense, often dramatically, when describing a deep personal betrayal.
Telling the press about her sister's illness felt like a kind of treason to Élise.
figurative: 'a kind of treason' softens the heavy legal word
For Dario, leaving the family bakery to work for a rival shop was treason.
X was treason — naming a personal act as a deep betrayal
The poet called his friend's silence during the protests a quiet treason.
Eitan called the coach's move to the rival team treason against everything they had built.
- betrayal
the neutral everyday word — use this in most personal contexts; 'treason' here is dramatic
- treachery
close in tone, suggests calculated deceit by someone trusted
- disloyalty
milder; describes the failing rather than the act
- fidelity
faithfulness, especially to a person or promise
- allegiance
a declared loyalty to a person, group, or cause
文法句型
a treason against [someone/something]
用法筆記
Distinguish from sense 1 by the object of the betrayal: sense 1 is always against a country or state, while sense 2 is against a person, group, friendship, or cause. Sense 2 is literary or emphatic — in plain speech, 'betrayal' is more common.