Did you know?
Pleaded vs. Pled
Plead belongs to the same class of verbs as bleed, lead, and feed, and like them it has a past and past participle with a short vowel spelled pled (or sometimes plead, which is pronounced alike). From the beginning, pled has faced competition from the regular form pleaded, which eventually came to predominate in mainstream British English. Pled was and is used in Scottish English, which is likely how it came to American English. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, pled was attacked by many American usage commentators (perhaps because it was not in good British use). Though still sometimes criticized, it is fully respectable today and both pled (or plead) and pleaded are in good use in the U.S. In legal use (such as “pleaded guilty,” “pled guilty”), both forms are standard, though pleaded is used with greater frequency. In nonlegal use (such as “pleaded for help”), pleaded appears more commonly, though pled is also considered standard.
Examples of plead in a Sentence
Hannah Fry, Los Angeles Times, 19 Apr. 2024
Crosby and Judd both pleaded not guilty to the charges during a December court appearance.
—Sasha Hupka, The Arizona Republic, 19 Apr. 2024
Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges and has denied any wrongdoing.
—Alexander Mallin, ABC News, 18 Apr. 2024
Carder pleaded no contest to two felony counts of lewd and lascivious act with a child under the age of 14 in San Luis Obispo County in 1988 and was sentenced to a year in jail and eight years of probation, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
—Caleb Lunetta, San Diego Union-Tribune, 18 Apr. 2024
Trump pleaded not guilty when he was indicted more than a year ago on 34 felony counts of falsification of business records.
—Graham Kates, CBS News, 18 Apr. 2024
Thug’s attorney Brian Steel denies the charges against his client, who pleaded not guilty.
—Herb Scribner, Washington Post, 18 Apr. 2024
Three of the six girls pleaded guilty to assault causing bodily harm and three other girls were found guilty of the same crime by a jury, according to the Supreme Court of Canada.
—USA TODAY, 18 Apr. 2024
And those who have pleaded guilty to obstruction but have not yet been sentenced could withdraw those pleas.
—Spencer S. Hsu, Washington Post, 10 Apr. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'plead.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Articles Related to plead
Dictionary Entries Near plead
Cite this Entry
“Plead.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/plead. Accessed 24 Apr. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
plead
verb
or pled
Legal Definition
plead
verb
; pleading
Kansas Statutes Annotated Kumaran v. Brotman, 617 N.E.2d 191 (1993)Anglo-French plaider to argue in a court of law, from Old French plaid legal action, trial more at plea
Share