Legal Definitions - incommunicado

Incommunicado describes a state where an individual is unable to communicate with others, or their communication is severely restricted, often by an external authority or circumstance.

Here are some examples illustrating the term:

• Imagine a deep-sea diver whose communication equipment malfunctions during a dive. For the duration of the emergency, they are incommunicado with their support team on the surface.

  This illustrates the term because the diver has lost all means of communication, making it impossible for them to send or receive messages from others.

• When a person is arrested and held for initial questioning, law enforcement may keep them incommunicado from family members or external contacts for a limited period, as permitted by law, to prevent interference with an ongoing investigation.

  In this context, the individual's ability to communicate is restricted by an authority, meaning they are prevented from contacting anyone beyond what is legally allowed for their detention.

• Consider a participant in a reality television show who agrees to live in an isolated environment for several weeks without access to phones, internet, or outside visitors.

  This person is voluntarily incommunicado, as they have chosen to be without any means of communication with the outside world for the duration of the show.