treason

/ˈtriːzn/ (bre, ipa) · /ˈtriːzn/ (ame, ipa) · /ˈtrē-zᵊn/ (ame, mw)

treason — 名詞

1. the serious crime of acting against your own country — for example, by helping a

1.名詞C1
釋義

叛國罪

背叛自己國家的重罪

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.

例句

Christopher was hanged for treason after passing army secrets to enemy spies.

Christopher 因為把軍方機密交給敵方間諜，最後因叛國罪被處以絞刑。

fixed phrase: hanged for treason

Selling military maps to a foreign government during wartime is treason in most countries.

戰爭期間把軍事地圖賣給外國政府，在大多數國家都構成叛國罪。

subject + is treason — defining a specific act as the crime

同義詞
  • 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

反義詞
  • 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

❌He committed a treason against the king.
✅He committed treason against the king.
💡treason is uncountable when naming the crime; drop the article.
❌She did treason on her country.
✅She committed treason against her country.
💡the standard collocation is 'commit treason against', not 'do treason on'.

2. a serious breaking of trust toward a person, group, or cause that one is expecte

2.名詞C2
釋義

背叛；變節

嚴重背棄信任的行為

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.

例句

Telling the press about her sister's illness felt like a kind of treason to Élise.

向媒體透露姊姊的病情，對 Élise 來說就像某種背叛。

figurative: 'a kind of treason' softens the heavy legal word

For Dario, leaving the family bakery to work for a rival shop was treason.

對 Dario 而言，離開家裡的麵包店去替競爭對手工作，就是一種背叛。

X was treason — naming a personal act as a deep betrayal

同義詞
  • 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

反義詞
  • 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.

常見錯誤

❌Her lies were a treason to me.
✅Her lies felt like a treason to me.' / 'Her lies were a betrayal of my trust.
💡without softening words like 'felt like', using 'treason' for a personal matter sounds overblown.