Thesaurus results for THUG

thug

noun

ˈthəg

Definition of thug

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

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.

Recent Examples of thug New Netflix exclusive The Debt Collector stars popular leading man Nadech Kugimiya as Num, a former hired thug who gets out of prison with just weeks to live. — K. Thor Jensen, PC Magazine, 17 July 2026 The last game changed from gutter/thug ball to professional ball. — Jackson Thompson, FOXNews.com, 16 July 2026 Threatening to limit mail-in voting, adding ridiculous ID requirements, or staging thugs at polling places are other possible ways to convince you to stay home. — Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, Sun Sentinel, 6 July 2026 To be sure, the thugs of Hamas and Hezbollah committed a horrific massacre of young Jewish civilians enjoying a music festival on October 7, 2023. — Dp Opinion, Denver Post, 6 July 2026 See All Example Sentences for thug

Recent Examples of Synonyms for thug

Noun

Ritchson plays a tough guy who falls for a local gangster’s girl.

— Anthony D'Alessandro, Deadline, 21 July 2026
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

Definition of gangster

Noun

The detective-heroines (and especially the actress-detectives) in this canon are careful about how performance might be extended to social duplicity, dishonesty, and fraud—but the lady criminals of Victorian detective fiction cross this line easily.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 24 July 2026
From 1873 to 1991, the island served as Costa Rica’s principal penitentiary, where some of the country’s worst criminals were sent to serve often short and torturous sentences.

— Rafa Sales Ross, Variety, 24 July 2026

Definition of criminal

Noun

The Athletic’s hockey staff came together to identify the definitive on-ice villain for every team in the NHL.

— Alex Kirshner, New York Times, 27 July 2026
Em details how Alan Rickman who played Hans Gruber, one of the most iconic villains in film history, offered director John McTiernan several key ideas that improved the film.

— Frank Racioppi, Forbes.com, 27 July 2026

Definition of villain

Noun

By the time Cameron came up with the idea for The Terminator — about a robot assassin sent back in time to kill the mother of humanity’s unborn savior — Wisher was growing more interested in screenwriting.

— Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone, 21 July 2026
Their characters — a notorious assassin and a lawyer — race across Europe, balancing brutal fights and a messy, decades-long friendship.

— Emily Zemler, Los Angeles Times, 16 July 2026

Definition of assassin

Noun

People in northwest Nigeria are caught between regular attacks by bandit groups who specialize in kidnapping for ransom and Islamist militants who have been expanding their territory.

— ABC News, ABC News, 19 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 bandit

Noun

That filtering suggests the thieves want compact files that may contain credentials or financial records.

— Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 21 July 2026
More than 400,000 KitKat bars, some 12 tons of chocolate, had vanished while being transported from a Nestlé factory in central Italy to its destination in Poland, after thieves made off with the truck.

— Sam Birchall, Fortune, 20 July 2026

Definition of thief

Noun

Also in his orbit are a consortium of crooks, including his cousin Freddie, a hip junkie, and Pepper, a taciturn hoodlum who was friends with Ray’s dad, Big Mike, a legendary thief.

— Niela Orr, Vulture, 20 July 2026
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

Definition of hoodlum

Noun

After all, what are the pirate-ship kitchens Bourdain recounts early in Kitchen Confidential if not a more dangerous, adult version of the juvenile hijinks that have always fascinated Johnson?

— Nicholas Quah, Vulture, 29 July 2026
One, a delight for the kitchen — the pressure, the camaraderie, the artist's heart, the pirate's adoration of heat and knives — and, another, hard drugs.

— ABC News, ABC News, 29 July 2026

Definition of pirate

Browse Nearby Words

thuds

thug

thugs

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“Thug.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/thug. Accessed 1 Aug. 2026.

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Synonyms of thug

noun

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