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crime

noun

Simple meaning

An act punishable by law.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

krym
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈkɹaɪm

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. criminal law

    An act punishable by law; usually considered an evil act

  2. An evil act not necessarily punishable by law

  3. countable

    A specific act committed in violation of the law, especially criminal law.

  4. uncountable

    The habit or practice of committing crimes.

  5. uncountable

    Criminal acts collectively.

  6. countable

    Any great sin or wickedness; iniquity.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A1 · Beginner (estimated)
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: (criminal law) an act punishable by law; usually considered an evil act

Used this way, crime is a specialist word with a clearly unfavourable pull. This is a legal use: the wording is institutional and carries a defined meaning in law rather than a loose everyday one.

Emotional tone
Negative
Formality
Specialist/technical
Intensity
Moderate
How common
Specialized
Connotation
Serious and weighty
Usage feel
Clinical and detached

Where it naturally appears

  • Law/legal
  • Government/politics
  • Academic writing

Usage note

In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use crime

  • “A long record of crimes.”noun

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

organized crimeviolent crimecrime preventioncrime scenecrime ratecrime controlserious crimecollar crime

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • crime ratenounCompound term

    The ratio of crimes in an area to the population of that area.

  • crime syndicatenounCompound term

    A loose affiliation of gangsters in charge of organized criminal activities.

  • crime wavenounCompound term

    A sudden rise in the crime rate.

  • financial crimes enforcement networknounCompound term

    A law enforcement agency of the Treasury Department responsible for establishing and implementing policies to detect money laundering.

  • had crimenounCompound term

    Serious crimes committed by Muslims and punishable by punishments established in the Koran.

  • organized crimenounCompound term

    Underworld organizations.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

  • criminalnounRelated term

    Someone who has committed a crime or has been legally convicted of a crime.

  • criminologynounRelated term

    The scientific study of crime and criminal behavior and law enforcement.

  • criminal recordnounRelated term

    A list of crimes for which an accused person has been previously convicted.

  • criminal lawnounRelated term

    The body of law dealing with crimes and their punishment.

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.