felon
noun · adjective
Simple meaning
Someone who has committed a crime or has been legally convicted of a crime.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
fehluhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈfɛlən
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.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
criminal law
Someone who has committed a crime or has been legally convicted of a crime
“The program helps each convicted felon find steady employment after release.”
adjective
by extension
Of a place: harsh, savage, wild; of a thing: deadly; harmful.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient
- Frequency
- Rare
- Typical Use
- Varies by meaning
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Someone who has committed a crime or has been legally convicted of a crime
Used this way, felon is a specialist word with a faintly unfavourable edge. This is a legal use: the wording is institutional and carries a defined meaning in law rather than a loose everyday one.
“The program helps each convicted felon find steady employment after release.”
- Emotional tone
- Slightly negative
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Critical or judgemental
- 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.
Nearby words
- malefactor , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
A serious crime (such as murder or arson).
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: someone who has committed a crime
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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.