sexual predator

American  

[sek-shoo-uhl pred-uh-ter, -tawr] / ˈsɛk ʃu əl ˈprɛd ə tər, -ˌtɔr /

noun

1. a person who repeatedly commits sexual assault or other sex-related crimes, often targeting a specific type of victim.

   A sexual predator has been jailed for 13 years for his involvement in a child sex-trafficking ring.

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Other Word Forms

• sexual predation
  noun

Etymology

Origin of sexual predator

First recorded in 1965–70

Example Sentences

Streeting said the appointment was a "scandal", adding that "the really worrying aspect is... a candidate's known association with a convicted sexual predator did not weigh heavily enough on decision-makers".

From BBC • Feb. 9, 2026

Farrow, who lives directly across the street from a previously relocated violent sexual predator, Calvin Lynn Grassmier, attended that court hearing in Hollywood along with friends Mary Jeters, Linda Adams and Diane Swick.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 5, 2024

Some of her colleagues, she says, classify offenders in five sometimes overlapping categories: the ex-partner, the revenger of perceived wrongs, the rejected suitor, the lonely incompetent suitor and the sexual predator.

From Scientific American • Jul. 26, 2023

Snyder filed the lawsuit, which was filed in India, in August after MEA WorldWide published a slew of articles in July that included linking the owner to sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein.

From Washington Times • Feb. 22, 2021

Ripoff Report is one of hundreds of “complaint sites” — others include She’s a Homewrecker, Cheaterbot and Deadbeats Exposed — that let people anonymously expose an unreliable handyman, a cheating ex, a sexual predator.

From New York Times • Jan. 30, 2021