criminal
Americanadjective
noun
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criminals
plural
noun
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a person charged with and convicted of crime
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a person who commits crimes for a living
adjective
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of, involving, or guilty of crime
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(prenominal) of or relating to crime or its punishment
criminal court
criminal lawyer
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informal senseless or deplorable
a criminal waste of money
Usage
What is a basic definition of criminal? A criminal is a person who commits crime. Criminal is also used to describe something involved in committing crime or related to crime. Criminal has a few other senses as an adjective. A criminal is a person who breaks the law and engages in illegal activity.
- Real-life examples: Shoplifters, kidnappers, bank robbers, and pirates are all criminals.
- Used in a sentence: The judged sentenced the two wanted criminals to prison for stealing a car.
- Real-life examples: Stealing a car, robbing someone’s house, and printing fake money to use as real money are all criminal acts. They are all against the law, and a person will be arrested if caught doing any of these acts. Police might say a person is accused of criminal activity if they believe the person was doing something illegal.
- Used in a sentence: The gangster Al Capone was in charge of a criminal organization.
- Real-life examples: In the United States, criminal law is a collection of laws that state what the government or society says is a crime and will result in punishment by the state if someone is proved to have broken the law. A criminal lawyer is a lawyer who specializes in criminal law.
- Used in a sentence: When Jimmy was arrested for breaking into his neighbor’s house, he called a criminal lawyer to help him.
Synonym Usage
See illegal.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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noncriminaladjective
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quasi-criminaladjective
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subcriminaladjective
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supercriminaladjective
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uncriminaladjective
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criminallyadverb
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noncriminallyadverb
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quasi-criminallyadverb
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subcriminallyadverb
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supercriminallyadverb
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uncriminallyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of criminal
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Late Latin crīminālis, from Latin crīmin- (stem of crīmen “accusation, blame, charge”; see crime) + -ālis -al 1
Explanation
A criminal is someone who breaks the law. If you're a murderer, thief, or tax cheat, you're a criminal. When you think of criminals, your first thought might be of someone awful like a murderer. But this word is a lot broader — Anyone who breaks the law is technically a criminal, even if the crime is just not paying a speeding ticket. You can also talk about criminal activities: things that are illegal. Lots of TV shows are about police officers and lawyers trying to catch criminals who are engaged in all kinds of exciting criminal activity.
Vocabulary lists containing criminal
Way Off: Synonyms for "Wrong"
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Module 1: Vocabulary Video Words
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Crime and Punishment
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The technological savvy used by the criminal groups dates back to the Cold War, when Romania’s Communist regime trained legions of engineers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 20, 2026
She says she would expand intelligence-sharing with Washington, work with U.S. agencies and the Coast Guard against drug trafficking and coordinate with Colombia to dismantle criminal groups on the border.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 19, 2026
“Those who engage in these criminal acts against these animals will suffer the consequences,” Hochman said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026
Further BBC Scotland inquiries established that Greer had passed vetting checks to join Strathclyde Police in 2009, despite having two reports of criminal behaviour against women on his record.
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
She smiled the innocent smile of a master criminal at work.
From "The Interrupted Tale" by Maryrose Wood
For decades, most Americans felt like the FBI was a reliable law enforcement agency that could be counted on to solve crimes and protect us from some of the worst criminals.
From Salon ● Sep. 18, 2026
He helped rescue people trapped in the Baldwin Hills dam collapse and helped police track fleeing criminals — just the way present-day news pilots do.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2026
Against that backdrop, 88 percent of Brazilians favor tougher sentences for criminals and 79 percent support lowering the age of criminal responsibility, according to recent polls.
From Barron's ● Sep. 16, 2026
In 2022, after Nivie Kaul lost more than $8 million in a cryptocurrency scam, she embarked on a quest to unmask the criminals and get the money back.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026
Until the practice was banned, convicted criminals were literally branded as criminals—they were burned with a hot iron, like cattle.
From "The Mona Lisa Vanishes" by Nicholas Day
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.