burglary
Americannoun
-
burglaries
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of burglary
1150–1200; Middle English < Anglo-French burglarie; see burglar, -y 3
Explanation
A burglary is committed when a person breaks into a building with the intent of committing a crime, especially if the crime is to steal valuable items. What's the difference between burglary and robbery? In a burglary, the criminal has to enter the building or structure illegally (breaking and entering), and the victim of the theft is unlikely to have contact with the burglar — or to even know about the theft until after the burglar is gone. In a robbery, however, a victim has to be present, and the criminal commits the crime by using violence or threatening the victim with violence.
Vocabulary lists containing burglary
List 3
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Crime and Punishment
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List 8
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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:
A statement continued: "The conduct relates to an allegation the individual failed to identify and pursue a line of enquiry relating to an attempted burglary reported in April 2025."
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
PC Harper had been about to head home at the end of a long shift when he and a colleague were called to reports of a burglary.
From BBC ● Aug. 8, 2026
Domenick Yazzolino, reported that authorities got a call about a burglary and found Forbes inside a yacht that didn’t belong to her.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2026
The Louvre burglary stunned the world and revealed major security lapses at the world's most visited museum, visited by around nine million people annually.
From Barron's ● Jul. 20, 2026
It hadn’t been a regular burglary that night, even though Frankie tried to make it sound like one.
From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros
The reports range from brazen burglaries to visitors nervous about a bear wandering by.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
Dallas Cowboys player Linval Joseph and Milwaukee Bucks forward Bobby Portis were also targeted in different burglaries.
From BBC ● May 25, 2026
Police Chief Jim McDonnell said that many of these residential burglaries are tied to theft rings from South America as well as groups based in South L.A.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 20, 2026
Police are investigating two recent home burglaries in Los Angeles in which the thieves were confronted by witnesses or scared off by home alarms.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 11, 2026
Investigating the burglaries, Locard found prints—but they didn’t look like any prints he’d seen before.
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.
