Implicatus

Implicatus is a Latin adjective and past participle meaning “involved, entangled, implicated.” It is formed from the verb implicare, which means to involve or to entangle, derived from in- (in, into) and plicare (to fold, weave). The word is grammatically declined as implicatus (masculine), implicata (feminine), and implicatum (neuter), matching the gender and number of the noun it modifies. In Latin texts, implicatus typically functions as an adjective describing a person or thing that is involved in a matter or situation.

In usage, implicatus can mean physically entangled or metaphorically involved. As a perfect passive participle, it often describes someone who has become implicated in a crime, dispute, or other affair, or a thing that is intertwined with another element. Because it is a participle, it can appear with or without direct linkage to a governing noun, and it also serves as a descriptive label in late or legal Latin contexts.

In modern scholarship and translations, implicatus is primarily encountered in Latin quotations or discussions, where it is rendered into English as “involved” or “implicated.” The English cognate is implicate (verb) or implicated (past participle), while implicatus remains a Latin term used in scholarly apparatus or stylistic renderings of classical and medieval Latin texts. It is not a widely used term in contemporary English-language contexts outside of quoted Latin.

See also: implicatio, implicare, implicature.