criminal

English

Etymology

From Middle English, from Anglo-Norman criminal, from Late Latin criminalis, from Latin crimen (“crime”)

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Adjective

criminal (comparative more criminal, superlative most criminal)

1. Being against the law; forbidden by law.
2. Guilty of breaking the law.
3. Of or relating to crime.
4. (figuratively) Abhorrent or very undesirable, even if allowed by law.

   Printing such asinine opinions without rebuttal is criminal, even when not libel!

5. Of or relating to crime control, notably penal law.

   His criminal record shows his resistance to all crime prevention and - repression.

Usage notes

• Nouns to which "criminal" is often applied: law, justice, court, procedure, prosecution, intent, case, record, act, action, behavior, code, offence, liability, investigation, conduct, defense, trial, history, responsibility, lawyer, tribunal, appeal, process, background, mind, conspiracy, evidence, gang, organization, underworld, jurisprudence, offender, jury, police, past, group, punishment, attorney, violence, report, career, psychology.

Synonyms

• illegal

Derived terms

criminal conversation criminalisation criminalist criminalistics criminality

criminalize criminal law criminal-law criminally criminal negligence

criminalness criminal-offence criminal offence criminal procedure criminal record

Related terms

criminate crimination criminologist

criminology criminousness

Translations

being against the law

• Bengali: অপরাধমূলক (bn)
• Bulgarian: престъпен (bg) (prestǎpen), криминален (bg) (kriminalen)
• Catalan: criminal (ca)
• Czech: zločinný (cs), trestný (cs)
• Dutch: misdadig (nl), crimineel (nl), onwettig (nl)
• Finnish: rikollinen (fi), lainvastainen (fi)
• French: criminel (fr)
• Georgian: დანაშაულებრივი (ka) (današaulebrivi) 
• German: kriminell (de)

• Greek: εγκληματικός (el) (egklimatikós) , ποινικός (el) (poinikós) 
• Jèrriais: crînminnel
• Macedonian: злосторнички (mk) (zlóstornički), криминален (mk) (krminálen), престапен (mk) (préstapen)
• Romansch: criminal (rm)
• Russian: преступный (ru) m (prestupnyj) (prestúpnyj), криминальный (ru) m (kriminalʹnyj) (krminál’nyj), уголовный (ru) m (ugolovnyj) (ugolóvnyj)
• Scottish Gaelic: eucoireach (gd)
• Swahili: mhalifu (sw)

guilty of breaking the law

• Catalan: criminal (ca)
• Dutch: misdadig, crimineel
• Finnish: rikollinen (fi)
• French: criminel (fr)
• German: kriminell (de)
• Greek: εγκληματικός (el) (egklimatikós) 

• Hungarian: bűnös (hu)
• Jèrriais: crînminnel
• Macedonian: престапнички (mk) (prestápen), злосторен (mk) (zlóstoren)
• Romansch: criminal (rm)
• Scottish Gaelic: eucoireach (gd)
• Swahili: mhalifu (sw)

of or relating to crime

• Bengali: অপরাধমূলক (bn)
• Bulgarian: криминален (bg) (kriminalen)
• Catalan: criminal (ca)
• Czech: zločinný (cs) m
• Dutch: misdadig, crimineel
• Finnish: rikollinen (fi), rikosoikeudellinen (fi)
• French: criminel (fr)
• German: kriminell (de)
• Greek: εγκληματικός (el) (egklimatikós) 

• Hungarian: bűnügyi (hu)
• Jèrriais: crînminnel
• Khmer: ខាងបទឧក្រិដ្ឋ (km) (kʰaang bɑt okkrǝt)
• Macedonian: криминален (mk) (krminálen)
• Romansch: criminal (rm)
• Scottish Gaelic: eucoireach (gd)
• Swahili: mhalifu (sw)
• Turkish: kriminal (tr)
• Volapük: krimik (vo), midunik (vo)

abhorrent or very undesirable

• Dutch: misdadig, crimineel
• Greek: εγκληματικός (el) (egklimatikós) 

• Swahili: mhalifu (sw)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Esperanto: krima
• Indonesian: kriminal, jahat
• Interlingua: criminal
• Italian: criminale, delittuoso

• Japanese: 犯罪的 (はんざいてき, hanzai-teki), 犯罪 (はんざい, hanzai)
• Polish: kryminalny m, przestępczy m
• Portuguese: criminoso (pt) m ; criminal (pt) m and f
• Romanian: criminal (ro) m
• Spanish: criminal (es)

Noun

criminal (plural criminals)

1. A person who is guilty of a crime, notably breaking the law.

Synonyms

• lawbreaker
• offender
• perpetrator
• See also Wikisaurus:criminal

Translations

person guilty of a crime, breaking the law

• Albanian: please add this translation if you can
• Arabic: مجرم (ar) (mújrim)
• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: престъпник (bg) m (prestǎpnik)
• Catalan: criminal (ca) m and f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 罪犯 (cmn) (zuìfàn), (especially one in custody) 犯人 (cmn) (fànrén), 犯罪分子 (cmn) (fànzuì fènzǐ)

• Czech: zločinec (cs) m
• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: misdadiger (nl) m, crimineel (nl) m
• Esperanto: krimulo (eo)
• Finnish: rikollinen (fi), lainsuojaton (fi), kriminaali (fi)
• French: criminel (fr) m
• Georgian: დამნაშავე (ka) (damnašave) 
• German: Kriminelle (de) f, Krimineller (de) m, Verbrecher (de) m
• Greek: εγκληματίας (el) (egklimatías) m and f 
• Hebrew: פושע (poshe'a) m, פושעת (posha'at) f
• Hindi: please add this translation if you can
• Hungarian: bűnöző (hu)
• Icelandic: glæpamaður (is) m
• Indonesian: kriminal (id), penjahat (id)
• Interlingua: criminal

• Irish: coirpeach (ga) m
• Italian: criminale (it)
• Japanese: 犯罪者 (はんざいしゃ, hanzai-sha), 犯人 (はんにん, hannin)
• Khmer: ឧក្រិដ្ឋជន (km) (okkrǝt chɔɔn)
• Korean: please add this translation if you can
• Macedonian: злосторник (mk) (zlóstornik) m, престапник (mk) (préstapnik) m
• Polish: kryminalista (pl) m, przestępca (pl) m
• Portuguese: criminoso (pt) m, criminosa (pt) f
• Romanian: infractor (ro) m, infractoare f
• Russian: преступник (ru) m (prestupnik) (prestúpnik)
• Scottish Gaelic: eucoireach (gd) m
• Serbo-Croatian: злочинац (sh) (zločinac) m
• Slovene: kriminálec (sl) m
• Spanish: criminal (es)
• Swahili: mhalifu (sw)
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: suçlu (tr)
• Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can
• Volapük: (male or female) kriman (vo), (male) hikriman (vo), (female) jikriman (vo), (male or female) midunan (vo), (male) himidunan (vo), (female) jimidunan (vo)
• Welsh: troseddwr (cy) m

---

Old French

Adjective

criminal m (feminine criminale)

1. criminal; illegal; against the law

Declension

  Declension of criminal  

Number	Case	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Singular	Subject	criminals or criminaus	criminale	criminal
	Oblique	criminal	criminale	criminal
Plural	Subject	criminal	criminales	criminal
	Oblique	criminals or criminaus	criminales	criminal

---

Spanish

Adjective

criminal m and f (plural criminales)

1. criminal

Noun

criminal m and f (plural criminales)

1. A criminal

Related terms

• crimen
• criminalidad
• criminalista m and f
• criminalizar
• acriminar