Criminals

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈkɹɪmɪnəlz/

Definitions

1. Individuals who break the law by engaging in illegal activities
2. People involved in acts that violate legal rules and are punishable by law
3. Those who perform actions that are against the law and subject to legal penalties

Etymology: Criminals is simply the plural of "criminal", so the story belongs to that base word. "Criminal" reached English in Middle English as "cryminal", borrowed from Anglo-Norman "criminal", which took it from Late Latin "criminalis". That Latin adjective was built from "crimen", meaning "crime" or "charge", and the noun "crimen" itself rests on a root sense of accusation and judgement rather than wrongdoing alone. The Latin base shows the shift that matters most here. "Crimen" originally carried the sense of an accusation or charge brought against someone, and only later came to denote the offence itself. A criminal, in that original frame, was therefore someone under charge, not yet proven guilty, which is a sense that has largely faded from the word.

Synonyms: offenders, lawbreakers, delinquents, wrongdoers, felons

Antonyms: law-abiding citizens, innocents