as in gangster
a violent, brutal person who is often a member of an organized gang
the Mob boss regularly sent his thugs after people who were slow to pay their debts
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of thug
Your threat to this criminal regime has also kept the regime's thugs at bay.
—
Tucker Reals, CBS News, 9 Jan. 2026
Before this time, young Russians grew up in bleak, rough neighborhoods ruled by street thugs.
—Mikhail Zygar, Vanity Fair, 7 Jan. 2026
Maduro is a thug, a ruthless dictator who deserves not to be president of his country.
—Voice Of The People, New York Daily News, 6 Jan. 2026
Again, Maduro is a socialist thug.
—The Editorial Board, Oc Register, 6 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for thug
Tucker Reals, CBS News, 9 Jan. 2026
Before this time, young Russians grew up in bleak, rough neighborhoods ruled by street thugs.
—Mikhail Zygar, Vanity Fair, 7 Jan. 2026
Maduro is a thug, a ruthless dictator who deserves not to be president of his country.
—Voice Of The People, New York Daily News, 6 Jan. 2026
Again, Maduro is a socialist thug.
—The Editorial Board, Oc Register, 6 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for thug
Recent Examples of Synonyms for thug
Noun
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Or downtown was too unsafe, during the gangster era.—
Jared Kaufman,
Twin Cities,
11 Jan. 2026
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Beset by gangs and guns, the Haçienda faltered in the ’90s despite clever-sounding schemes such as replacing the club’s security with the gangsters themselves.—
Boris Kachka,
The Atlantic,
9 Jan. 2026
Noun
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The first thing to do is to reduce the damage to the United States, the inflow of guns and criminals and immigrants and drugs into the United States, the destabilizing of a key part of the Western Hemisphere.—
CBS News,
CBS News,
11 Jan. 2026
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Also, place freezes with ChexSystems and the National Consumer Telecom and Utilities Exchange to stop criminals from opening bank accounts, phone lines, or utility services in his name.—
Kurt Knutsson,
FOXNews.com,
11 Jan. 2026
Noun
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The Sex and the City villain seemed unsupportive of his longtime co-star and love interest, Sarah Jessica Parker, being honored with a Carol Burnett lifetime-achievement award at the Golden Eve last week.—
Alejandra Gularte,
Vulture,
14 Jan. 2026
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While the Infinity Saga revolved around Thanos (Josh Brolin) as the main villain, the Multiverse Saga will debut Doctor Doom as the big bad in the upcoming film.—
Tommy McArdle,
PEOPLE,
13 Jan. 2026
Noun
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Though detectives conclude that assassin cult members Ash (Jon Pointing) and Dee Dee (Maeve Courtier-Lilley) were the ones who killed Aaron, Paige revealed that the real killer was Ingrid.—
Emily Blackwood,
PEOPLE,
5 Jan. 2026
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Maduro is being held in the same federal jail in Brooklyn as accused assassin Luigi Mangione.—
Michael Ruiz , Maria Paronich , Brendan McDonald,
FOXNews.com,
5 Jan. 2026
Noun
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There can be no doubt that in tax terms, America’s wealthiest families make out like bandits.—
Business Columnist,
Los Angeles Times,
8 Jan. 2026
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The robbery lasted less than seven minutes, as the bandits used a truck with an extendable ladder to cut through a window on a second-floor balcony, according to police.—
Mason Leath,
ABC News,
27 Dec. 2025
Noun
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Over the next two months or so, work will focus inside the 190,000-square-foot, bunker-like structure — vacant for nearly two decades and long the target of vandals and the object of thieves who stripped the concrete structure of anything of value.—
Kenneth R. Gosselin,
Hartford Courant,
14 Jan. 2026
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That information is now in the hands of identity thieves and potentially hostile foreign adversaries, patiently waiting for the right moment to strike.—
Barbara McQuade,
Mercury News,
13 Jan. 2026
Noun
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These involve raiding the lairs of hoodlum rivals, then singlehandedly dissuading them from competition.—
Dennis Harvey,
Variety,
28 Oct. 2025
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The story, originally conceived by Truffaut, is a thin, desultory affair, about a French hoodlum on the run and his doomed fling with an American expat.—
Justin Chang,
New Yorker,
27 Sep. 2025
Noun
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These oil fields basically are pirate operations.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
4 Jan. 2026
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Notorious pirate Jean Lafitte frequented neighboring Grand Terre Island in the early 1800s.—
Kristy Christiansen,
Southern Living,
31 Dec. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Thug.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/thug. Accessed 16 Jan. 2026.
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