impunity

From Middle French impunité, from Latin impunitas, from impunis (“without punishment”).

• IPA^(key): /ɪmˈpjuːnɪti/

impunity (countable and uncountable, plural impunities)

1. (countable, law) Exemption from punishment.
2. (uncountable) Freedom from punishment or retribution; security from any reprisal or injurious consequences of an action, behaviour etc.
   • 1846, Edgar Allen Poe, The Cask of Amontillado:

     I must not only punish but punish with impunity. A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser.

   • 1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom, Abacus 2010, p. 495:

     The remoteness of the prison made the authorities feel they could ignore us with impunity.

• impunitive
• punishment
• punition
• punitive
• punitively

• “impunity” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary, 2001–2019.