crime
pronunciation
How to pronounce crime in British English:
UK [kraɪm]
How to pronounce crime in American English:
US [kraɪm]
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- Noun:
- (criminal law) an act punishable by law; usually considered an evil act
- an evil act not necessarily punishable by law
Word Origin
- crime
- crime: [14] Crime is one of a wide range of English words (including certain, crisis, critic, decree, discern, discrete, discriminate, excrement, riddle ‘sieve’, secret, and secretary) which come ultimately from or are related to the Greek verb krínein ‘decide’. This was a relative of Latin cernere ‘decide’, from whose root evolved the noun crīmen ‘judgment, accusation, illegal act’. This passed via Old French crimne (later crime) into English, where traces of the original meaning ‘accusation’ survived until the 17th century.=> certain, critic, decree, discriminate, excrement, secret
- crime (n.)
- mid-13c., "sinfulness," from Old French crimne (12c., Modern French crime), from Latin crimen (genitive criminis) "charge, indictment, accusation; crime, fault, offense," perhaps from cernere "to decide, to sift" (see crisis). But Klein (citing Brugmann) rejects this and suggests *cri-men, which originally would have been "cry of distress" (Tucker also suggests a root in "cry" words and refers to English plaint, plaintiff, etc.). Meaning "offense punishable by law" is from late 14c. The Latin word is glossed in Old English by facen, also "deceit, fraud, treachery." Crime wave first attested 1893, American English.
Synonym
Example
- 1. There is almost no crime .
- 2. A crime has been committed .
- 3. The biggest worry remains crime .
- 4. The crime has other hazards .
- 5. Violent crime is particularly common .