arraign

verb

ar·​raign ə-ˈrān 

arraigned; arraigning; arraigns

transitive verb

1

: to call (a defendant) before a court to answer to an indictment : charge

2

: to accuse of wrong, inadequacy, or imperfection

arraignment

ə-ˈrān-mənt 

noun

Examples of arraign in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

He was being held at the Berkeley jail in lieu of $160,000 bail and was scheduled to be arraigned in court Wednesday. —Harry Harris, Mercury News, 17 Feb. 2026

The suspect is expected to be arraigned at Boston Municipal Court in Roxbury on Tuesday. —Colleen Cronin, Boston Herald, 17 Feb. 2026

She was being held without bail at the Sacramento County Main Jail and was expected to be arraigned on one charge of murder Tuesday in Sacramento Superior Court. —Daniel Hunt, Sacbee.com, 14 Feb. 2026

Fort is scheduled to be arraigned next week. —Ted Johnson, Deadline, 13 Feb. 2026

Word History

Etymology

Middle English araynen, areynen, arreynen "to ask (a question), ask (someone) a question, interrogate, rebuke, (in law) call upon to answer an accusation," borrowed from Anglo-French arener, araisner, arrener "to speak to, ask questions of, call to account, (in law) call upon to answer an accusation," going back to Vulgar Latin *adratiōnāre, from Latin ad- ad- + Vulgar Latin *ratiōnāre "to speak, converse," verbal derivative of Latin ratiōn-, ratiō "reckoning, calculation, explanation" (early Medieval Latin also "justification, dispute, discussion, speech") — more at reason entry 1

Note: The spoken Latin form *adratiōnāre gave rise to two paradigms in medieval French, one based on stress on the stem (as in first person singular j'araisone), another based on stress on the ending (as in second person plural vous araisniez). In Anglo-French these developed into two more or less distinct verbs (arener and araisuner) with only partial semantic overlap, the legal sense belonging predominantly to arener. The verb araisuner was taken into Middle English as aresounen "to address, ask a question," with "present with an accusation" as a very infrequent meaning; it appears to have dropped from use after the sixteenth century. In modern standard French only the tonic form arraisoner survives; to judge by its inclusion in French-English dictionaries (Larousse, Oxford-Hachette), the most current meaning is "to board and inspect (an airplane or ship)." The g in English arraign, which first turns up in the early sixteenth century, has no evident etymological justification.

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for arraign

• abstain
• airplane
• alkane
• arcane
• attain
• backplane
• betaine
• biplane
• blockchain
• butane
• campaign
• cetane

Kids Definition

arraign

verb

ar·​raign ə-ˈrān 

: to call before a court to answer to a charge

arraignment

-mənt 

noun

Legal Definition

arraign

transitive verb

ar·​raign ə-ˈrān 

: to bring (a defendant) before a judge or magistrate to hear the charges and to plead usually either guilty or not guilty compare indict

Note: For a person to be formally arraigned, he or she must be called by name before a judge or magistrate. The judge or magistrate makes sure that the defendant is the person named in the complaint, indictment, or information, which is then read to formally notify the defendant of the charges. The defendant may then enter a plea of guilty, not guilty, or another plea allowed by law such as nolo contendere. In some cases, as when the defendant is not yet represented by a lawyer, the judge or magistrate may enter a plea of not guilty on the defendant's behalf.

arraignment noun

Etymology

Anglo-French arrainer, from Old French araisnier to address, call to account, from a-, prefix stressing goal of an action + raisnier to speak