misdemeanor

English

Alternative forms

• misdemeanour (UK)

Etymology

mis- +‎ demeanor

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌmɪsdɪˈmiːnə(ɹ)/

• Audio (southern England)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: mis‧de‧mean‧or

Noun

misdemeanor (plural misdemeanors) (American spelling)

1. (law) 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.
2. Any act of misbehavior.
   • Quoted in 2002, The Collected Clinical Works of Alfred Adler (page 32)

     Because of the mother's lack of affection and the judgments made by everybody around her, the child is in opposition to everybody. Her misdemeanors may be partly the expression of her inner revolt.

Synonyms

• petty crime

Derived terms

• misdemeanant
• misdemeanist
• misdemeanorize

Translations

small crime

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

  Mandarin: 輕罪 (zh), 轻罪 (zh) (qīngzuì), 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
• Greek: πταίσμα (el) n (ptaísma) (up to one month of imprisonment), πλημμέλημα (el) n (plimmélima) (up to five years of imprisonment)
• Japanese: 軽罪 (ja) (けいざい, keizai), 軽犯罪 (けいはんざい, keihanzai), 微罪 (びざい, bizai)
• Kazakh: қылық (kk) (qylyq)
• Korean: 경죄 (gyeongjoe), 경범죄 (gyeongbeomjoe)
• Polish: wykroczenie (pl) n, występek (pl) m
• Portuguese: contravenção f
• Russian: просту́пок (ru) m (prostúpok), правонаруше́ние (ru) n (pravonarušénije)
• Spanish: contravención f, falta (es), mala conducta
• Swedish: förseelse (sv) c, lagöverträdelse (sv) c
• Welsh: camymddygiad m

See also

• felony (more serious crime)