Cite as: 508 U. S. 129 (1993)
Opinion of the Court
The United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas sentenced petitioner to 5 years' imprisonment on the first § 924(c)(1) count and to 20 years on each of the other five § 924(c)(1) counts, the terms to run consecutively. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed the convictions and sentence. 954 F. 2d 262 (1992). We granted certiorari on the question whether petitioner's second through sixth convictions under § 924(c)(1) in this single proceeding arose "[i]n the case of his second or subsequent conviction" within the meaning of § 924(c)(1). 506 U. S. 814 (1992).
Petitioner contends that the language of § 924(c)(1) is facially ambiguous, and should therefore be construed in his favor pursuant to the rule of lenity. His principal argument in this regard is that the word "conviction" can, according to the dictionary, have two meanings, "either the return of a jury verdict of guilt or the entry of a final judgment on that verdict," Brief for Petitioner 4; and that the phrase "second or subsequent conviction" could therefore "mean 'an additional finding of guilt rendered at any time' " (which would include petitioner's convictions on the second through sixth counts in the single proceeding here) or " 'a judgment of conviction entered at a later time,' " (which would not include those convictions, since the District Court entered only a single judgment on all of the counts), id., at 7.
It is certainly correct that the word "conviction" can mean either the finding of guilt or the entry of a final judgment on that finding. The word has many other meanings as well, including "[a]ct of convincing of error, or of compelling the admission of a truth"; "[s]tate of being convinced; esp., state of being convicted of sin, or by one's conscience"; "[a] strong persuasion or belief; as, to live up to one's convictions; an intensity of thorough conviction." Webster's New International Dictionary 584 (2d ed. 1950). But of course susceptibility of all of these meanings does not render the word "conviction," whenever it is used, ambiguous; all but one of the
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