1
as in criminal
a person who commits moral wrongs
she regards anyone who would cause the breakup of a family as a malefactor of the worst sort
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in offender
a person who has committed a crime
the victim was able to give a clear description of the malefactor to the police
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of malefactor
Some malefactors even hire out farms of humans to defeat them in bulk.
CAPTCHAs also have unexpected benefits for those who run them.
—
ArsTechnica, 28 July 2025
Its victims, malefactors, and investigators are largely without personality, their function being merely to leave or follow trails, and to wear out a reader with anticlimax after anticlimax.
—Thomas Mallon, New Yorker, 30 June 2025
The sense of purpose that motivated Bush after 9/11, combined with his visceral antipathy to Saddam—who was, after all, one of the great malefactors of the modern age—brought moral clarity, as well as strategic myopia.
—Hal Brands, Foreign Affairs, 28 Feb. 2023
Either way, The Lowdown finds Harjo dipping into pleasantly familiar reservoirs of fiction in which the protagonists know how to take a constant beating, the malefactors are all suspiciously verbose and ostentatious hats abound.
—Daniel Fienberg, HollywoodReporter, 3 Sep. 2019
See All Example Sentences for malefactor
ArsTechnica, 28 July 2025
Its victims, malefactors, and investigators are largely without personality, their function being merely to leave or follow trails, and to wear out a reader with anticlimax after anticlimax.
—Thomas Mallon, New Yorker, 30 June 2025
The sense of purpose that motivated Bush after 9/11, combined with his visceral antipathy to Saddam—who was, after all, one of the great malefactors of the modern age—brought moral clarity, as well as strategic myopia.
—Hal Brands, Foreign Affairs, 28 Feb. 2023
Either way, The Lowdown finds Harjo dipping into pleasantly familiar reservoirs of fiction in which the protagonists know how to take a constant beating, the malefactors are all suspiciously verbose and ostentatious hats abound.
—Daniel Fienberg, HollywoodReporter, 3 Sep. 2019
See All Example Sentences for malefactor
Recent Examples of Synonyms for malefactor
Noun
-
Cyber criminals linked to Iran have accessed FBI Director Kash Patel's personal email account, sources familiar with the matter told CBS News.—
CBS News,
CBS News,
28 Mar. 2026
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That convenience also gives criminals a perfect disguise.—
Kurt Knutsson,
FOXNews.com,
24 Mar. 2026
Noun
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Holmes qualified for the reduced term under a 2023 rule change allowing first-time offenders to do less time for some non-violent crimes, according to an order issued Thursday by the federal judge who sentenced her in 2022 for defrauding investors in her blood-testing startup.—
Bloomberg,
Mercury News,
27 Mar. 2026
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And many Democrats see it as an effort to curb more liberal prosecutors who have embraced restorative justice policies, including steering nonviolent offenders away from prison sentences or taking more lax approaches to drug offenses.—
Riley Bunch,
AJC.com,
27 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
Anderson frames his argument largely in relation to the thought of thirteenth-century theologian Thomas Aquinas, who argued that Christians are generally obliged to directly confront someone who is behaving wrongly, and to do it in private to preserve the wrongdoer’s reputation.—
Livia Gershon,
JSTOR Daily,
26 Mar. 2026
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He’s talked tough in news conferences about prosecuting child predators, drug traffickers and assorted wrongdoers.—
Dan Sullivan,
Miami Herald,
19 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
One of my grandsons believes that his denomination is the only one and the rest of us are all sinners.—
Jeanne Phillips,
Dallas Morning News,
24 Mar. 2026
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Because lemme tell ya, there are new sinners inducted every day.—
Bethy Squires,
Vulture,
21 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
Then there’s Haim, so full of venom and vitriol, who depending on one’s perspective is low-key the hero or villain of the film.—
Brian Truitt,
USA Today,
31 Mar. 2026
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Javier Bardem’s Oscar-winning performance as Anton Chigurh in the Coen brothers’ No Country for Old Men remains an iconic villain turn 20 years later.—
Jason P. Frank,
Vulture,
31 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Malefactor.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/malefactor. Accessed 2 Apr. 2026.
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