as in criticized
formal
to criticize (a person's character, intentions, etc.) by suggesting that someone is not honest and should not be trusted
He impugned his rival's character. Her motives have been scrutinized and impugned.
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Recent Examples of impugned
But the Pentagon’s representatives seemed to feel impugned.
—
Gideon Lewis-Kraus,
New Yorker,
14 Mar. 2026
So the markets are the ultimate arbiter of over whether the Fed’s independence is being impugned.
—
NBC news,
18 Jan. 2026
The school board argued that Pickering’s statements were false and that the reputation of the district and its employees had been impugned.
—
Eric Adler,
Kansas City Star,
22 Sep. 2025
Gideon Lewis-Kraus,
New Yorker,
14 Mar. 2026
So the markets are the ultimate arbiter of over whether the Fed’s independence is being impugned.
—
NBC news,
18 Jan. 2026
The school board argued that Pickering’s statements were false and that the reputation of the district and its employees had been impugned.
—
Eric Adler,
Kansas City Star,
22 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for impugned
Verb
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Greenspan was also criticized for enacting policies that contributed to the subprime mortgage crisis that led to the recession at the end of the 2000s.
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The Federal Reserve’s steadfast period of low interest rates in the 2000s was criticized as contributing to a housing bubble in the 2000s, followed by the mortgage crisis of 2007 and the Great Recession the following year.
Verb
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The county argues the grand jury fundamentally misunderstood what happened before the explosion, saying its investigation relied on speculation instead of evidence and wrongly blamed county officials for a criminal enterprise prosecutors say was built on years of deception.
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That’s how many layoffs have been blamed on AI so far this year, according to career services firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas.
Verb
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Hezbollah, not included in the talks, has denounced them.
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These tensions flared to their worst level since the invasion this week, when Nawrocki denounced and stripped Zelensky of the Order of the White Eagle, awarded to him in 2023, over the honoring of the UPA.
Verb
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They have also been widely condemned by antisemitism watchdogs, the university and government officials — some of whom suggested that his comments should prevent him from being hired anywhere.
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There are moments when a phrase, or a current of thought, that had seemed condemned to archival history is suddenly all anyone talks about.
Verb
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Zelenskyy issued a decree on May 26 naming a military unit of Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, or UPA, which operated during the 1940s and 1950s and has been accused in Poland of mass killings.
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Amid the nearly $1 million scandal, Daniel Chartraw, formerly of South Lake Tahoe, was accused of controlling companies, including Crypto-Pal LLC.
Verb
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It was appealed by Lifton and the PCFB and Blakeman’s ability to cure was frozen due to the appeal.
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Louisiana appealed to our court and sought a stay pending appeal.
Cite this Entry
“Impugned.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/impugned. Accessed 25 Jun. 2026.
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