misdemeanor

English

Alternative forms

• misdemeanour (UK)

Etymology

From 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, criminology, historical in UK) A lesser criminal act in most common law legal systems, generally punished less severely than a felony.

   Coordinate term: felony

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

• misdeed
• petty crime

Derived terms

• misdemeanant
• misdemeanist
• misdemeanorize

Translations

small crime

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

  Mandarin: 輕罪／轻罪 (zh) (qīngzuì), 輕微違反／轻微违反 (qīngwéi wéifǎn) (Macau)

• Czech: přečin (cs), 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)
• Hebrew: חֵטְא (he) m (ẖet)
• Hungarian: szabálysértés (hu)
• Japanese: 軽罪 (ja) (けいざい, keizai), 軽犯罪 (けいはんざい, keihanzai), 微罪 (ja) (びざい, bizai)
• Kazakh: қылық (kk) (qylyq)
• Korean: 경죄 (輕罪) (gyeongjoe), 경범죄 (輕犯罪) (gyeongbeomjoe)
• Polish: wykroczenie (pl) n, występek (pl) m
• Portuguese: contravenção f
• Russian: просту́пок (ru) m (prostúpok), правонаруше́ние (ru) n (pravonarušénije)
• Spanish: contravención (es) f, falta (es), mala conducta
• Swedish: förseelse (sv) c, lagöverträdelse (sv) c
• Welsh: camymddygiad m