hate crime

noun

: any of various crimes (such as assault or defacement of property) when motivated by hostility to the victim as a member of a group (such as one based on race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability)

Examples of hate crime in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

San Jose police told CBS News Bay Area that officers responded to the campus of Branham High School Friday morning for a hate crime that allegedly happened two days prior. —Tim Fang, CBS News, 9 Dec. 2025

Lynching would not become a federal hate crime until 2022—a full century later. —Adeola Adeosun, MSNBC Newsweek, 7 Dec. 2025

In 2021, the FBI said its investigators were looking into the homicide as a possible hate crime. —Noelle Phillips, Denver Post, 1 Dec. 2025

Irina Vernikov, a New York City councilwoman who was charged with unlawful possession of a firearm after bringing a licensed handgun to a pro-Israel rally in 2023 amid a spike in antisemitic hate crimes in New York City, thanked Bondi for intervening in the Hawaii case. —Michael Ruiz, FOXNews.com, 25 Nov. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1960, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for hate crime

• aforetime
• allozyme
• anytime
• christmastime
• cybercrime
• dinnertime
• guggenheim
• isozyme
• lysozyme
• maritime
• mesenchyme
• overtime

Kids Definition

hate crime

noun

plural hate crimes

: any of various crimes (as assault) when motivated by hostility to the victim based on social characteristics (as color, creed, gender, sexual orientation, or national origin)

Legal Definition

hate crime

noun

: a crime that violates the victim's civil rights and that is motivated by hostility to the victim's race, religion, creed, national origin, sexual orientation, or gender