rowdies

noun

plural of rowdy
as in thugs
a violent, brutal person who is often a member of an organized gang rowdies had overtaken the neighborhood and were threatening people on the street

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for rowdies
  1. thugs
  2. criminals
  3. gangsters
  4. bandits
  5. hoodlums
  6. villains
  7. ruffians
  8. hooligans
Noun
  • Shortly after his big win, he’s attacked by two thugs in a parking garage.
    — Ben Travers, IndieWire, 30 July 2026
  • The night of the title fight, Duke is attacked by two thugs who smash his hand with a hammer and, in the ensuing chaos, kill somebody close to him.
    — Daniel Fienberg, HollywoodReporter, 30 July 2026
Definition of thugs
Noun
  • That gives criminals several ways to target you, even when your Paidwork balance was nearly empty.
    — Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 1 Aug. 2026
  • Cyber criminals are using highly convincing counterfeit audio, video, and identity fabrications as tools in ways that conventional detection methods will fail to identify.
    — Chuck Brooks, Forbes.com, 31 July 2026
Definition of criminals
Noun
  • Remember all those fake memoirs from the early 2000s, by all those writers pretending to be addicts and gangsters and Holocaust survivors?
    — James Parker, The Atlantic, 20 July 2026
  • In each, the protagonist(s) will be sought by both police and gangsters yet will lose their own money and have to get along without any while on the run.
    — Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times, 15 July 2026
Definition of gangsters
Noun
  • The plot is set in motion when dacoits (armed bandits) rob and murder Ram Lal, the village moneylender and head of Mano Majra’s only Hindu household.
    — Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica, 24 July 2026
  • Instead, most are romantic stories about young lovers separated by fate, and the rest are swashbuckling adventures full of bandits and pirates.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 30 June 2026
Definition of bandits
Noun
  • In the past decade, the leadership of the Kinahan organization has become rich and cosmopolitan, and their life styles have started to resemble those of international businessmen more than of street hoodlums.
    — Ed Caesar, New Yorker, 30 Apr. 2026
  • The first pictures McCullin took were of hoodlums and down-and-outs, subjects that reflected his own hardscrabble background.
    — Andrew Pulver, Air Mail, 31 Jan. 2026
Definition of hoodlums
Noun
  • Still, bonus points for casting Chukwudi Iwuji as the menacing High Evolutionary, one of the oddest and most unsettling Marvel villains in recent memory.
    — EW Staff, Entertainment Weekly, 3 Aug. 2026
  • This trend suggests a need for new, effective villains to balance the roster.
    — Alfred Konuwa, Forbes.com, 2 Aug. 2026
Definition of villains
Noun
  • The series has lent a cinematic gangster attraction to the Peaky Blinders, yet the term itself was not one gang — as depicted in the show — but a generic expression from the late 19th century for the ‘street ruffians’ of Birmingham, born out of the city’s ring of poverty.
    — Jacob Tanswell, New York Times, 4 Apr. 2026
  • In fact, the GTW ruffians have to give the Big Honey some props for his relative restraint in the heat of the moment.
    — Sean Keeler, Denver Post, 28 Feb. 2026
Definition of ruffians
Noun
  • There’s still time to make the most of your Southern summer, with old-fashioned traditions to help you—and perhaps a few other neighborhood hooligans from back in the day—feel like a kid again.
    — Abigail Wilt, Southern Living, 22 July 2026
  • Andric argued that former soccer players targeted by hooligans were indeed a social group deserving protection, but the judges didn’t buy it.
    — The Editorial Board, Chicago Tribune, 13 July 2026
Definition of hooligans
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

rowboats
rowdies
rowdiness
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Cite this Entry

“Rowdies.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/rowdies. Accessed 5 Aug. 2026.

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More from Merriam-Webster on rowdies

Nglish: Translation of rowdies for Spanish Speakers

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