vandalism
Americannoun
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deliberately mischievous or malicious destruction or damage of property.
vandalism of public buildings.
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the conduct or spirit characteristic of the Vandals.
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willful or ignorant destruction of artistic or literary treasures.
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a vandalic act.
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of vandalism
Explanation
Vandalism is the destruction of someone else's property. Some people think of graffiti as public art, while others dismiss it as nothing but vandalism. If you damage public or private property on purpose, you've committed the crime of vandalism. The range of vandalism can vary from carving your initials in a desk at school to tearing pages out of a library book to breaking windows of a building. The word vandal comes from the Vandals, the Germanic tribe that attacked Rome in 455. The tribe's name meant "wanderer," but the word vandal was used in the 1600s to mean "destroyer of what is beautiful."
Vocabulary lists containing vandalism
Frindle
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Banned Book Club
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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.
The controversial felony charges tested a legal theory that someone in a crowd of protesters could face heavy criminal liability, even if they weren’t directly accused of vandalism or other crimes reported during the demonstration.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 22, 2026
More than 90% of people jailed pretrial were charged with offenses that didn’t even qualify for detention under the California Constitution: shoplifting, driving without a license, vandalism.
From Los Angeles Times • May 6, 2026
Some locals speculate that the Sconset homeowners might have staged the vandalism themselves to gain sympathy.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 8, 2026
Martine Letterie, one of the campaign's organisers, said concentration camps were increasingly the target of vandalism, including far-right imagery daubed on sites.
From Barron's • Mar. 19, 2026
“That would mean instead of random vandalism, the Purple Thumb is targeting a single company,” he said.
From "City Spies" by James Ponti
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.
