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:
“He is represented in the underlying criminal matter by the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office, appointed counsel to whom Nick has a right and who continues to represent him.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 2026
In its statement, DHS denied HSI has neglected its core mission, saying the agency has increased its efforts to combat criminal cartels, gangs and drug traffickers in response to multiple Trump executive orders.
From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2026
This only applies, though, if the loot is not found to be linked to criminal activity.
From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026
López Beltrán said he hadn’t committed any criminal or immoral act that would merit the visa being revoked.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
The worst criminal of all, with a record of many bad deeds, was a very cocky and arrogant man named Gines de Pasamonte.
From "Adventures of Don Quixote" by Argentina Palacios
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
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said his party was exploring options to transfer foreign criminals in the UK to prisons in other countries, including El Salvador and Kosovo.
From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2026
Authorities and experts agree that the Forest City operations were probably staffed by criminals who had been driven out of Cambodia, a global nerve centre for transnational scams.
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026
Michoacán’s governor said in a statement that the U.S. action was a “preventive” measure after recent high-profile arrests by the Mexican government of criminals accused of extortion.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
“You have a way of finding photos of criminals online, don’t you?”
From "Three Little Words: A Memoir" by Ashley Rhodes-Courter
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.
