thief
Americannoun
-
thieves
plural
noun
-
a person who steals something from another
-
criminal law a person who commits theft
Usage
What does thief mean? A thief is a person who steals, especially in secret and without using force or violence. The plural of thief is thieves. The related noun theft refers to the act or an instance of stealing. In general, intentionally taking something that doesn’t belong to you makes you a thief. The word most commonly refers to a person who steals money or physical property, but a thief can steal other things, such as ideas, information, or intellectual property. The word thief typically refers to a person who steals without anyone noticing, at least not when the theft is taking place. In contrast, a person who steals by using force, violence, or threats of force or violence would more likely be called a robber. Still, the word thief is used generally to refer to someone who steals. In this way, a robber is a kind of thief. Most instances of theft are crimes, but a person might still be called a thief if they’ve committed a theft that won’t get them arrested. You might call your sibling a thief when they steal a cookie from your plate, for example. Example: I don’t care that he only stole a few things—he stole them, and that makes him a thief.
Synonym Usage
Thief, robber refer to one who steals. A thief takes the goods or property of another by stealth without the latter's knowledge: like a thief in the night. A robber trespasses upon the house, property, or person of another, and makes away with things of value, even at the cost of violence: A robber held up two women on the street.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of thief
First recorded before 900; Middle English; Old English thēof; cognate with Dutch dief, German Dieb, Old Norse thjōfr, Gothic thiufs
Explanation
A thief is someone who steals something. A thief can be anything from a cyberspace criminal mastermind who steals credit card information around the world, to the petty thief who picks people's pockets on the subway. Some famous thieves (notice the -v- in the plural) include outlaws of the Old West, like Butch Cassidy and Jesse James, and those notorious bank robbers of the 1930s with the memorable names — "Baby Face" Nelson, "Pretty Boy" Floyd, Bonnie and Clyde, Ma Barker, "Machine Gun" Kelly, to name a few. They were so bold (and so brutal) that their activities became a major impetus for the beefing up of the FBI, under J. Edgar Hoover.
Vocabulary lists containing thief
Excerpt from "A Midsummer Night's Dream"
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This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for June 8–June 14, 2024
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Unit 19, Lesson 4
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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:
"I view it in the same way a determined thief will get into somebody's house or somebody's car and despite the best security systems and enclosures sometimes these things happen," he said.
From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2026
I know comparison is the thief of joy, but how do you stop comparing yourself to the people around you?
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 8, 2026
“It would have been more honorable to have been an anonymous thief in the night,” Savery said at Monday’s hearing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 31, 2026
Shehu’s lawyer, Kujtim Cakrani, says Shehu is neither a drug dealer nor a land thief, and he never dealt directly with Kushner—only acting through an intermediary.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 9, 2026
That little voice in my head that’s been telling me he isn’t the thief is right.
From "The Manifestor Prophecy" by Angie Thomas
“They’ve taken everything,” Denis said, adding: “These aren’t high-schoolers. It’s thieves coming from all the projects, all the banlieues.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 18, 2026
There are now window railings at the upper-level Apollo Gallery where thieves broke in.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
"Havering has been affected quite badly," PC Yoosef Outaleb tells us - partly because thieves use the back roads as a cut-through to neighbouring Essex.
From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2026
Join police on the hunt for high-tech thieves behind a wave of UK car crime.
From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2026
No copyists, no aspiring thieves, no lovestruck Parisian couples.
From "The Mona Lisa Vanishes" by Nicholas Day
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
