as in gangster
a person who gets money from another by using force or threats
tortured by a gang of extortionists into revealing the combination for the money vault
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Recent Examples of extortionist
An agent approached Donna in Miami posing as an extortionist tied to the killers.
—
Sarah Rumpf-Whitten, FOXNews.com, 23 Aug. 2025
Sarah Rumpf-Whitten, FOXNews.com, 23 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for extortionist
Noun
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There’s also a tropical storm circulating, as if the gangsters flew in from the tropics.—
John Metcalfe,
Mercury News,
12 Sep. 2025
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Others are new, building on a genuinely fresh and funny revelation that explains not only a cold open involving yakuza gangsters half a world away in Osaka, but also why this quaint town is sitting on a stash of weaponry big enough to overthrow the governments of several small nations.—
Katie Rife,
IndieWire,
9 Sep. 2025
Noun
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We’re then introduced to Louie, a thug who works for a loan shark, threatening and killing people.—
Owen Gleiberman,
Variety,
3 Sep. 2025
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Their neighbor, an older Jewish woman, gets arrested and Nazi thugs brazenly loot her apartment.—
Rabih Alameddine
September 2,
Literary Hub,
2 Sep. 2025
Noun
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In a police photograph, Lansky stood next to racketeer Charles (Lucky) Luciano.—
Miami Herald Archives,
Miami Herald,
3 Apr. 2025
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In the other corner: Vito Genovese, Costello’s childhood friend and fellow racketeer, who had to leave town long ago because of a thing, and has now come home to resume his place in the Mafia hierarchy.—
David Fear,
Rolling Stone,
20 Mar. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Extortionist.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/extortionist. Accessed 18 Sep. 2025.
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