Synonyms of looting

looting 1 of 2

noun

as in robbery

Related Words

• robbery
• pillaging
• plundering
• raiding
• depredation
• marauding
• plunder
• despoliation
• piracy
• sacking
• despoilment
• pirating
• privateering

looting

2 of 2

verb

present participle of loot

as in plundering

to search through with the intent of committing robbery

the bandits looted the archaeological dig before riding off into the night

Synonyms & Similar Words

• plundering
• pillaging
• raiding
• sacking
• marauding
• ransacking
• despoiling
• stealing (from)
• raking
• combing
• hunting
• rummaging
• breaking in
• burglarizing
• rifling
• ripping off
• ravishing
• harrying

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of looting

Noun

Following the 2020 killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, burning, looting and other forms of mayhem broke out in Minneapolis and many other cities across America. — Arkansas Online, 23 Sep. 2026

Current unchecked looting will forever handcuff future generations if not reversed with fair-share taxes coupled with strategic spending cuts over lobbyists’ objections. — Chicago Tribune, 23 Sep. 2026

Much of it can be subsistence looting, with people selling antiquities because their livelihoods have been disrupted by war. — Nabih Bulos, Los Angeles Times, 8 Sep. 2026

Cabinet members reserve almost a fifth of the government’s vaccine stockpile for themselves, and the public reacts with mass looting and violent civil unrest. — Gideon Lewis-Kraus, New Yorker, 25 July 2026

Efforts to prevent looting had been made even before the formation of the MFAA. — Encyclopedia Britannica, 14 July 2026

President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Antiquities Act after a generation of lobbying by educators and scientists who wanted to protect sites from commercial artifact looting and haphazard collecting by individuals. — ABC News, 13 July 2026

Racial tensions were at a boiling point, and the police raid of an after-hours nightclub sparked the flame that led to looting, the destruction of nearly 1,400 buildings, multiple fires and 43 deaths as well as 342 injuries. — USA Today, 7 July 2026

The movie continues its tradition of addressing social issues, this time focusing on human equality and colonial looting, with pointed dialogue criticizing the British Empire. — Hannah Abraham, Forbes.com, 4 July 2026

Verb

David Cassirer has argued the law clearly requires the museum to return the painting — and has pledged to support other looting victims with any proceeds. — Kevin Rector, Los Angeles Times, 16 Sep. 2026

At the height of the roughly two-and-a-half-hour melee that followed, as many as 1,500 people surged through Westwood Village, smashing windows, looting stores, and vandalizing cars. — Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 28 Aug. 2026

Deputies didn't say if the suspects from the street takeover were the same who are suspected of looting the auto parts store. — Dean Fioresi, CBS News, 9 Aug. 2026

Militants affiliated with the Islamic State group attacked a village in Congo near the border with Uganda early Saturday, killing at least 13 people and burning and looting homes, a local civil society group said. — ABC News, 8 Aug. 2026

When a group of participants began looting, violence erupted as police attacked with tear gas and shot and killed a 16 year-old amid hundreds of arrests. — Laura French, TheWeek, 28 July 2026

Brisas de Maiquetía has not been spared from looting, a problem affecting all of La Guaira. — Julimar Valentina Rivas Perez, NBC news, 24 July 2026

But our excitement fades as Nolan’s camera captures the men raping women, looting houses and reveling in the violence. — Brent Lang, Variety, 21 July 2026

And his version is undeniably meant to speak to us now as well as to avoid some serious turnoffs, such as Odysseus’s boasts about looting and taking slaves. — Gal Beckerman, The Atlantic, 17 July 2026