thugs

noun

plural of thug
as in criminals
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 thugs 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 In the big screen take of Clayface, Hagen is a matinee idol on the rise, but his face gets slashed by thugs. — Anthony D'alessandro, Deadline, 23 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 The actions of these thugs, who should be imprisoned for a long while, is the cause of denying real Knicks fans the chance to watch the game communally. — Voice Of The People, New York Daily News, 10 June 2026 People have committed suicide because a bunch of thugs went after them. — NBC news, 7 June 2026 The masked thugs deposit a tearful middle-aged woman in front of Bass, Newsom, and Harris. — Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic, 12 May 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for thugs
  1. criminals
  2. gangsters
  3. villains
  4. bandits
  5. assassins
  6. hoodlums
  7. thieves
  8. pirates
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
  • 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 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
  • Lucky Number Slevin, a movie about mistaken identity, rival crime syndicates, and assassins, was, for some reason (Josh Hartnett), one of the comfort movies of my childhood.
    — Tamim Alnuweiri, InStyle, 1 July 2026
  • These artisans, with their trade secrets, were kept on Murano, a cluster of islands just across the lagoon from the city, ostensibly as a precaution against fire, though the state would also send assassins after anyone who tried to leave.
    — Cal Revely-Calder, New Yorker, 29 June 2026
Definition of assassins
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
  • Hagans said Haitians returning to their home country from America are viewed as wealthy and vulnerable, and are often targeted by thieves and bandits.
    — Emma Seiwell, New York Daily News, 1 Aug. 2026
  • Only Fortitude could be accessed by thieves, solely due to the production company’s failure to encrypt the drive, the spokesperson alleged.
    — Ashley Belanger, ArsTechnica, 31 July 2026
Definition of thieves
Noun
  • The hijacking is the latest in a series of attacks attributed to Somali pirates, whose activities have resurfaced in the Gulf of Aden and the western Indian Ocean after years of relative inactivity.
    — Omar Faruk, Los Angeles Times, 20 July 2026
  • But then a banquet meal goes horribly awry, and pirates sink the ship.
    — K. Thor Jensen, PC Magazine, 17 July 2026
Definition of pirates

Browse Nearby Words

thug
thugs
thumb
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Cite this Entry

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

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