misdemeanor

English

Alternative forms

• misdemeanour (UK)

Etymology

mis- +‎ demeanor

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌmɪsdɪˈmiːnə(ɹ)/
• Hyphenation: mis‧de‧mean‧or

Noun

misdemeanor (plural misdemeanors) (American spelling)

1. (law, US) A crime usually punishable upon conviction by a small fine or by a short term of imprisonment. In the USA, misdemeanants usually are incarcerated in county jail for less than one year, but felons usually are incarcerated in state or federal prison for more than one year. Crimes which are punishable by large fines or by longer imprisonment are sometimes called felonies.

Derived terms

• misdemeanant
• misdemeanorize

Synonyms

• petty crime

Translations

small crime

• Arabic: جُنْحَة‎ (ar) f (junḥa)
• Bulgarian: простъпка (bg) f (prostǎpka)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 輕罪 (zh), 轻罪 (zh) (qīngzùi), 輕罪 (zh), 轻罪 (zh) (qīngzuì)

• Czech: přečin, přestupek (cs) m
• Dutch: overtreding (nl) f, wanbedrijf (nl) n (Belgium)
• Finnish: lievä rikos, rikkomus (fi)
• French: forfait (fr) m, délit (fr) m
• German: Vergehen (de) n, Ordnungswidrigkeit (de) f
• Greek: πταίσμα (el) n (ptaísma) (up to one month of imprisonment), πλημμέλημα (el) n (plimmélima) (up to five years of imprisonment)

• Japanese: 軽罪 (けいざい, keizai), 軽犯罪 (けいはんざい, keihanzai), 微罪 (びざい, bizai)
• Korean: 경죄 (gyeongjoe), 경범죄 (gyeongbeomjoe)
• Polish: wykroczenie (pl) n
• Portuguese: contravenção f
• Russian: просту́пок (ru) m (prostúpok), правонаруше́ние (ru) n (pravonarušénije)
• Spanish: contravención f, falta (es), mala conducta
• Swedish: förseelse (sv) c, lagöverträdelse c

See also

• felony (more serious crime)