Word: impute (verb)

Associations

"Impute" means to say or suggest that someone is responsible for something, often something bad or wrong.

• Example 1: "They imputed the mistake to the new employee." This means they blamed the new employee for the mistake.
• Example 2: "The report imputes the cause of the problem to poor management." This means the report says poor management is responsible.
• Example 3: "Don't impute bad intentions to her without proof." This means don't assume she meant harm without evidence. A synonym is "attribute." The difference is "impute" often implies blame or fault, while "attribute" is more neutral and just means to say something comes from someone or something.

Substitution

You can use:

• "attribute" – more neutral, just saying where something comes from.
• "ascribe" – similar to attribute, often used in formal writing.
• "blame" – stronger, clearly saying someone is at fault. Changing the word changes the tone: "impute" is formal and often negative, "attribute" is neutral, "blame" is informal and direct.

Deconstruction

"Impute" comes from Latin "imputare," where "im-" means "to" or "toward," and "putare" means "to reckon" or "to think." So, it literally means "to reckon or assign to someone." This helps understand that "impute" is about assigning responsibility or cause.

Inquiry

• Can you think of a time when someone was unfairly imputed with blame?
• How would you use "impute" in a sentence about a positive action?
• Is it always negative to impute something to someone, or can it be neutral? Why?