as in gangster
a person who gets money from another by using force or threats
the racketeer threatened to have his thugs vandalize the shop if the shopkeeper didn't pay him a monthly bribe
Synonyms & Similar Words
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as in to blackmail
Related Words
Dissimilar Words
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
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Recent Examples of racketeer
Muri Assunção, New York Daily News, 13 Dec. 2024
Three co-defendants accepted plea deals earlier this week on racketeering conspiracy charges and were sentenced to probation and time served.
—Spin Staff, SPIN, 31 Oct. 2024
Anthony Gregory / Made By History, TIME, 23 July 2024
As revealed in previously undisclosed FBI files, Manton fraternized with racketeers and accepted large loans and gifts from such unsavory sources.
—Time, 25 July 2023
See All Example Sentences for racketeer
Noun
Conahan pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy charges.
—Muri Assunção, New York Daily News, 13 Dec. 2024
Three co-defendants accepted plea deals earlier this week on racketeering conspiracy charges and were sentenced to probation and time served.
—Spin Staff, SPIN, 31 Oct. 2024
Verb
While President Herbert Hoover had waged a war against kidnappers and racketeers, Roosevelt amplified the effort dramatically, pushed it in new directions, and overcame the jurisdictional, racial, partisan, and class divisions that had previously obstructed the law-and-order state.
—Anthony Gregory / Made By History, TIME, 23 July 2024
As revealed in previously undisclosed FBI files, Manton fraternized with racketeers and accepted large loans and gifts from such unsavory sources.
—Time, 25 July 2023
See All Example Sentences for racketeer
Recent Examples of Synonyms for racketeer
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
Verb
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Another minor added that Smith involved her husband, telling him that the victim had a video of her smoking marijuana with them and was blackmailing her.—
Saleen Martin,
USA Today,
11 Sep. 2025
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But in July, the FBI and DOJ released a joint memo stating there was no Epstein client list and no credible evidence that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals.—
Julie K. Brown Miami Herald,
Arkansas Online,
7 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
Verb
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His fortune also faced some hits as he was allegedly extorted.—
Jordana Comiter,
PEOPLE,
11 Sep. 2025
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Around that time in 2016, an undercover FBI agent approached Donna Adelson purporting to extort her with information about the contract killing on behalf of Rivera.—
Lauren del Valle,
CNN Money,
6 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Nathalie, 48, was in line to ask a question, while Enya had muscled her way closer to the canopy.—
Rick Jervis,
USA Today,
14 Sep. 2025
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Linebacker Dre Greenlaw was signed specifically for this kind of matchup, both muscled enough and quick enough to keep up over the middle with Warren’s kind of hybrid TE.—
Luca Evans,
Denver Post,
12 Sep. 2025
Noun
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An agent approached Donna in Miami posing as an extortionist tied to the killers.—
Sarah Rumpf-Whitten,
FOXNews.com,
23 Aug. 2025
Verb
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Investigators allege that Hernandez coerced at least five minors into participating in the production of child pornography on at least seven occasions, consistent with the seven charges.—
Ilana Arougheti,
Kansas City Star,
10 Sep. 2025
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Never use someone’s dream to coerce them into a relationship.—
J. Kim Murphy,
Variety,
10 Sep. 2025
Verb
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The Kuomintang, or KMT, also known as the Nationalist Party of China, is the party formerly led by Chiang Kai-shek that ruled the entirety of the Republic of China before Mao Zedong’s communist military forced it to flee to Taiwan.—
Timothy Nerozzi,
The Washington Examiner,
16 Sep. 2025
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The show also featured a number of first-time nominees and first-time winners like Tramell Tillman, Jeff Hiller, Hannah Einbinder, and Owen Cooper, all of whom were been forced to amend their moment in the spotlight to adhere to the joke.—
Fran Hoepfner,
Vulture,
15 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Racketeer.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/racketeer. Accessed 17 Sep. 2025.
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