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 color, creed, gender, or sexual orientation)

Examples of hate crime in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

According to the ruling, one defendant was sentenced to 15 months in prison for a hate crime and an additional seven months for making threats, having distributed images of the act online. —CNN Money, 16 June 2025

The Provincial Court of Madrid on Monday sentenced one of the defendants to 15 months in prison for a hate crime, and an additional seven months for making threats. —Guillermo Rai, New York Times, 16 June 2025

Anti-Zionism claims to oppose a government, but victims of hate crimes are never screened for their opinion of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or the Likud party. —Brendan Reilly, Chicago Tribune, 12 June 2025

Kohnen also argued that despite jurors finding the hate crime allegation true, there wasn’t evidence that Scholder’s actions were hate-motivated or that Scholder used any racial slurs during the incident. —City News Service, San Diego Union-Tribune, 9 June 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