censure
strong criticism or official blame
Root
- cens: assess, judge, value, or officially count
Other words with the cens root
- censor: official suppressor or examiner
- censorious: severely critical or fault-finding
- censurable: deserving blame or criticism
- census: official count of a population
Censure comes from the judging family: an authority weighs conduct and condemns it.
The committee voted to censure the official.