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:
Los Angeles County and state fire investigators cited eight violations, including three of California’s criminal code, in their report released on Aug. 4.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026
He mostly posts humorous memes, some of which explore racial themes, and has made several comments relating to the Eatherly case online on the account and referenced his own criminal history.
From Slate ● Aug. 20, 2026
A man has received a criminal conviction for not paying a fine for dropping a cigarette butt, even though he says he has never smoked.
From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026
Several municipalities under the control of criminal gangs lack voter registration centers, and as of Monday, nearly a month after opening, only about 260,000 people have registered to vote.
From Barron's ● Aug. 19, 2026
Scoville, who practiced law in Illinois, wasn't a criminal attorney.
From "Ambushed!" by Gail Jarrow
The new rule will still keep firearms out of the hands of undocumented immigrants, registered sex offenders and violent criminals, the department said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026
Yasukuni is dedicated to 2.5 million war dead, mostly Japanese, including convicted war criminals involved in Imperial Japan's invasion and occupation of parts of Asia in the 1930s and 1940s.
From Barron's ● Aug. 15, 2026
At a news conference on Monday, Reform UK suggested 10,000 prison spaces could be freed up if all foreign criminals were sent abroad to serve their sentences.
From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2026
"There will not be a single place in our territory where criminals can feel safe," he said.
From BBC ● Aug. 8, 2026
If Helmuth were a detective, he'd arrest real criminals, not the ordinary men and women who criticize Hitler or the Nazi Party and find themselves denounced by friends and neighbors.
From "The Boy Who Dared" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
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.
