From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishaccusationac‧cu‧sa‧tion /ˌækjəˈzeɪʃən/ ●○○ noun [countable] SCCACCUSEa statement saying that someone is guilty of a crime or of doing something wrongaccusation against A number of serious accusations have been made against her. The main accusation levelled against him was that he tried to avoid military service.accusation of His administration now faces accusations of corruption.accusation that The organizers of the march strongly denied government accusations that they intended to cause trouble. Burton’s enemies had made false accusations against him. She’s made all sorts of wild accusations against me in the past. They fled the country, amid accusations of corruption.COLLOCATIONSverbsmake an accusationYou’ve made a lot of accusations but you haven’t got any evidence.bring an accusation against somebodyThe accusations against him were brought by two 18-year-old women.level an accusation against/at somebody (=bring an accusation against someone)As a result, some outrageous accusations were levelled at her.face an accusation (=have an accusation made about you)The police faced accusations of using excessive force.deny/dismiss an accusationThe government denied accusations of corruption.prove/support an accusationThere were very few facts to support the accusation against him.adjectivesseriousThese are very serious accusations indeed.falseThere were a lot of false accusations throughout the trial.unfounded/groundless (=not based on facts or reason)The accusation is totally unfounded.The embassy denied what it called groundless accusations about its involvement in the attack.outrageous (=shocking and extremely unfair )He was drunk and his accusations were becoming more and more outrageous.a wild accusation (=with no evidence to support it)She’s made all sorts of wild accusations about him, hasn’t she?bitter accusations (=angry)The dispute was marked by bitter accusations from both sides.repeated accusationsRepeated accusations of neglect were made against the authorities.renewed accusations (=made again, often in a more forceful way)The government faced renewed accusations of corruption.further accusationsThere were further accusations of incompetence.phrasesamid accusations of something (=surrounded by accusations)He fled the country amid accusations of fraud. THESAURUSaccusation a statement saying that you believe someone is guilty of a crime or of doing something badThe army has faced accusations of racism.allegation a public statement accusing someone of doing something although it has not been provedHe denied allegations that he received a bribe.Police are investigating allegations of corruption.charge an official statement by the police accusing someone of a crime and saying that they must go to court, or a statement saying that someone has done something bad, made by anyoneHe appeared in court on a murder charge.She denied the charge that the article had been misleading. indictment law especially American English an official written statement accusing someone of a crime so that they will be judged under the American legal systemHe is under indictment for credit card fraud.
Examples from the Corpus
accusation• This can make those rare beings quite boring - an accusation you could never level at Jack.• I still have the news clippings from that, arguments, accusations of censorship.• There have been accusations of racism in the Los Angeles Police Department.• Pickens has denied the bribery accusations.• He strongly denied accusations that Conservative policies had failed, leading to soaring crime figures.• A frequent accusation levelled against the nouveau roman and, indeed, both modernism and postmodernism is their apolitical nature.• College officials were said to be skeptical about her accusations.• You've made a lot of accusations but you haven't come up with any evidence to support them.• A number of accusations have been levelled against Hutchinson by his former colleagues.• Some accusations are not true or only partly true.• Aikman reportedly was incensed at the accusation and talked to several black players to see whether they had a problem with him.• A spokesman said the accusations against Mr Fallon would be investigated.• Journalists who repeated this accusation either had not read the Report, or were simply being malicious.• You shouldn't make any wild accusations if you're not absolutely sure that Wilkins stole the money.accusation levelled against• A frequent accusation levelled against the nouveau roman and, indeed, both modernism and postmodernism is their apolitical nature.• Excessive bureaucracy is one accusation levelled against the group by analysts. 