as in thugs
a violent, brutal person who is often a member of an organized gang
the mobster threatened to break his legs if he didn't pay up
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Recent Examples of mobsters
In Big Mistakes, Levy and Taylor Ortega play siblings who shoplift a necklace from a jewelry store to give to their grandmother on her deathbed, only to be blackmailed by the mobsters that run the place into a series of increasingly stupid and dangerous errands.
—
K. Thor Jensen, PC Magazine, 3 Apr. 2026
The film will chart the pursuit and capture of one of America’s most ruthless mobsters and serial killers by notorious DEA Agent Jim Hunt (who also helped take down El Chapo) played by Paul Walter Hauser (Black Bird).
—Andreas Wiseman, Deadline, 27 Mar. 2026
This leads to a chaotic rigmarole in which, bit by bit, the Hungarian mobsters stream downstairs to either take advantage of the girls or do away with them, forcing them to rely on their discipline and athletic training to mount a response.
—Siddhant Adlakha, Variety, 14 Mar. 2026
In the 1970s, during the FBI’s crackdown on mobsters, organized crime dominated the list.
—Encyclopedia Britannica, 12 Mar. 2026
The mobsters turned the van around, pulled off the highway and dumped Gasso in a patch of poison ivy along the Connecticut River in Wethersfield.
—Edmund H. Mahony, Hartford Courant, 12 Feb. 2026
Police officials at a news conference said the officers had collected personal and private information unlawfully and distributed it to organized crime figures, in some cases for bribes, and that mobsters then carried out shootings and other violent crimes.
—Arkansas Online, 6 Feb. 2026
From Sweet Sue’s big opening song to the train ride west to hopping over the border to Mexico and back, the characters have to navigate love, life, and high heels while mobsters and feds surround them.
—Jed Gottlieb, Boston Herald, 20 Jan. 2026
There was also a lot of speculation that Ruby was involved with organized crime, as he was known to be friends with mobsters, mafia members and other members of the criminal underworld.
—Skyler Trepel, PEOPLE, 24 Nov. 2025
K. Thor Jensen, PC Magazine, 3 Apr. 2026
The film will chart the pursuit and capture of one of America’s most ruthless mobsters and serial killers by notorious DEA Agent Jim Hunt (who also helped take down El Chapo) played by Paul Walter Hauser (Black Bird).
—Andreas Wiseman, Deadline, 27 Mar. 2026
This leads to a chaotic rigmarole in which, bit by bit, the Hungarian mobsters stream downstairs to either take advantage of the girls or do away with them, forcing them to rely on their discipline and athletic training to mount a response.
—Siddhant Adlakha, Variety, 14 Mar. 2026
In the 1970s, during the FBI’s crackdown on mobsters, organized crime dominated the list.
—Encyclopedia Britannica, 12 Mar. 2026
The mobsters turned the van around, pulled off the highway and dumped Gasso in a patch of poison ivy along the Connecticut River in Wethersfield.
—Edmund H. Mahony, Hartford Courant, 12 Feb. 2026
Police officials at a news conference said the officers had collected personal and private information unlawfully and distributed it to organized crime figures, in some cases for bribes, and that mobsters then carried out shootings and other violent crimes.
—Arkansas Online, 6 Feb. 2026
From Sweet Sue’s big opening song to the train ride west to hopping over the border to Mexico and back, the characters have to navigate love, life, and high heels while mobsters and feds surround them.
—Jed Gottlieb, Boston Herald, 20 Jan. 2026
There was also a lot of speculation that Ruby was involved with organized crime, as he was known to be friends with mobsters, mafia members and other members of the criminal underworld.
—Skyler Trepel, PEOPLE, 24 Nov. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for mobsters
Noun
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The thugs would insinuate themselves into the confidence of wayfarers and, when a favorable opportunity presented itself, strangle them by throwing a handkerchief or noose around their necks.—
Encyclopedia Britannica,
Encyclopedia Britannica,
31 Mar. 2026
-
No government masked thugs shooting down our neighbors in the streets.—
Diego Parrado,
Vanity Fair,
29 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
They get captured by Hungarian gangsters and have to fight (and kill) their way out of an inn run by a shady former dance prodigy (Uma Thurman).—
Brian Truitt,
USA Today,
4 Apr. 2026
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Once housing notorious gangsters such as Al Capone, the notorious Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary closed its doors to prisoners in 1963, since becoming a museum.—
Zach Halaschak,
The Washington Examiner,
3 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
The scheme is designed to identify suspected criminals, combat identity fraud, and to police the EU's limit on 90-day stays within a 180-day period, according to the European Commission.—
Emma Clarke,
Condé Nast Traveler,
10 Apr. 2026
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Rex Heuermann, the man known as the Gilgo Beach killer, admitted to killing eight women over a span of decades, and the FBI is now looking into what motivated the 62-year-old to carry out his crimes to help capture other criminals in the future.—
Matt Lavietes,
NBC news,
9 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
Design There’s a reason James Bond villains chase 007’s Aston Martin in fleets of black Defenders.—
John Scott Lewinski,
Robb Report,
8 Apr. 2026
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In the two-parter, which airs April 14 (8PM – 10 PM), the series’ central character, Amy (Molly Parker) will risk her life for one of the series’ main villains, Richard (Scott Wolf), who had killed a patient, tried to cover it up and blamed it on Amy, almost ending her career.—
Nellie Andreeva,
Deadline,
7 Apr. 2026
Noun
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Set against mountainous landscapes and rural lakes, the story follows a wandering swordsman who is falsely accused of stealing a shipment of gold and must unravel a web of intrigue involving bandits, palace guards and corrupt officials while attempting to clear his name.—
Lin Ying-Hsuan,
Variety,
18 Mar. 2026
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Alongside attacks by bandits, Nigeria is also plagued by an insurgency fought by the Boko Haram extremist group and its splinter faction, the Islamic State West Africa Province.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
17 Mar. 2026
Noun
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No wonder all these characters wanted to become assassins, Scott implies; they’re removed from reality by so many orders of magnitude that living, breathing fellow humans are just blurry images.—
Theater Critic,
San Francisco Chronicle,
29 Mar. 2026
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Mirrors were such a precious commodity in the heyday of the Venetian Republic that the assassins were dispatched to, well, dispatch any defectors who left La Serenissima and tried to take the secrets of creating that mesmerizing, reflective surface along with them.—
Mark Ellwood,
Robb Report,
17 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
Rather than prohibiting unlicensed copies, the patent became, combined with the rise of the internet, a blueprint for pirates.—
Simon Akam,
Vanity Fair,
2 Apr. 2026
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The Vikings were raiders, pirates, traders, explorers, and colonizers who traveled far beyond their homeland in Scandinavia between the 9th and 11 centuries.—
Encyclopedia Britannica,
Encyclopedia Britannica,
2 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Mobsters.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/mobsters. Accessed 13 Apr. 2026.
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