imply

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɪmˈplaɪ/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English emplien (later implien),^[2][3] borrowed from Old French emplier (“to enfold”),^[4][5][6] from Latin implicō (“to enfold, involve, entangle”),^[4][5][3] from in- (“in”) and plicō (“to fold”),^[3][7] from Proto-Indo-European *plek- (“to plait”).^[3] The prefix was later respelled after Latin.^[5] Another form of the same Old French verb, emploier, gave employ, and implicate came straight from Latin, so the three are doublets.^[8][6][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

To enfold, entangle or involve: about 1374, in Chaucer's translation of Boethius.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

To involve something as a logical consequence is dated about 1400 in Barnhart and Etymonline,^[2][3] and 1529, in Sir Thomas More, in the OED.^[5] To hint at or express indirectly is from 1581.^[5][2] In the 16th and 17th centuries it also meant to employ, overlapping with that word,^[5][7][6] and to apply or attribute (1625–41).^[5] The literal sense, to entangle, died out by 1823.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1374 – to enfold, entangle (obsolete).^[5]
• c. 1400 – to involve as a consequence.^[2][3]
• a. 1533 – to employ (obsolete).^[5]
• 1581 – to hint at.^[5][2]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To suggest something without stating it directly; to hint.
2. To involve or point to something as a necessary consequence: rights imply duties.
3. (logic) To allow a conclusion to be inferred.

Related words

• implicate
• implication
• implicative
• implicit
• employ
• ply
• infer

Usage notes

The AHD and Collins both refer to their usage notes at infer, which distinguish the two words.^[4][10]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins