A violation of a rule, law, or agreement; breaking a rule (usually less serious than a felony or crime).
From Latin 'infractio,' derived from 'infringere' meaning 'to break or violate.' The prefix 'in-' means 'into' and 'frangere' means 'to break,' so it literally means 'a breaking into.'
Legal systems use different words for different severity levels—'infraction' is small (parking ticket), 'misdemeanor' is medium, and 'felony' is serious—each word is designed to signal how bad the rule-breaking is.
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