as in gangsters
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
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of extortionists
These kinds of sweeping outages are typically the result either of ransomware attacks, where online extortionists paralyse corporate networks in the hope of payment, or deliberate sabotage.
—
Reuters, NBC news, 20 Sep. 2025
These kinds of sweeping outages are typically the result either of ransomware attacks, where online extortionists paralyze corporate networks in the hope of payment, or deliberate digital sabotage.
—Reuters, CNN Money, 20 Sep. 2025
Combined with other high-tech attacks, such as deepfake phishing attempts, AI agents will create new and potentially highly problematic avenues of attack for hackers, fraudsters and extortionists.
—Bernard Marr, Forbes.com, 17 Sep. 2025
Reuters, NBC news, 20 Sep. 2025
These kinds of sweeping outages are typically the result either of ransomware attacks, where online extortionists paralyze corporate networks in the hope of payment, or deliberate digital sabotage.
—Reuters, CNN Money, 20 Sep. 2025
Combined with other high-tech attacks, such as deepfake phishing attempts, AI agents will create new and potentially highly problematic avenues of attack for hackers, fraudsters and extortionists.
—Bernard Marr, Forbes.com, 17 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for extortionists
Noun
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In those times, young people who self-described as gangsters fought for territory, and one of their subversive acts was to tag the walls of the city with the verses of cumbia songs.—
Karla Gachet,
NPR,
3 Oct. 2025
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Now is the time to push back in defense of free speech – as strongly and as publicly as the gangsters on the left and right are threatening to revoke it.—
Onkar Ghate,
Oc Register,
26 Sep. 2025
Noun
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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
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As night falls, armed thugs roam the streets and families pick up guns to protect themselves.—
Oren Liebermann,
CNN Money,
24 Aug. 2025
Noun
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Despite paying off blackmailers and marrying Lady Olivia Hedges (Danielle Galligan) to protect his secret, Arthur still loses his father’s Parliament seat after getting caught committing election fraud.—
Lynsey Eidell,
PEOPLE,
27 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Extortionists.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/extortionists. Accessed 8 Oct. 2025.
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