Thesaurus results for THUGS

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 That a Christian man was responsible for the devastation in Oklahoma City certainly didn’t matter to the thugs who terrorized a Muslim woman there, nearly seven months pregnant, by attacking her home, breaking her windows, screaming religious slurs. — Reshma Memon Yaqub, Rolling Stone, 11 Sep. 2026 Some of the thugs were actual neo-Nazis, led by real-life Russian fascist Maksim Martsinkevich, who would later be imprisoned for posting racist videos, investigated for murder and, in 2020, found dead in his cell of an apparent suicide. — Scott Roxborough, HollywoodReporter, 8 Sep. 2026 Meanwhile, Kyle and his usual pair of special-forces thugs track down a suspiciously large plane (as in, big enough to fly across the Atlantic) and an equally suspicious flight manifest. — Andy Andersen, Vulture, 6 Sep. 2026 Gail Bean and Isaiah John return to their roles as Wanda Bell and Leon Simmons, who are guiding the drug trade into the 1990s as gangsta rap goes mainstream and street thugs become music millionaires. — K. Thor Jensen, PC Magazine, 4 Sep. 2026 Dozens of settler thugs are still freely roaming the village. — David Shulman, The New York Review of Books, 26 Aug. 2026 The eponymous former assassin is drawn back into the game after some thugs (led by Alfie Allen) kill his dog and royally piss him off. — Declan Gallagher, Entertainment Weekly, 14 Aug. 2026 Shortly after his big win, he’s attacked by two thugs in a parking garage. — Ben Travers, IndieWire, 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

Recent Examples of Synonyms for thugs

Noun

Operating system and browser updates regularly fix vulnerabilities that criminals may try to exploit.

— Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 6 Sep. 2026
Most crimes across Mexico went unsolved, and authorities sometimes appeared to be colluding with criminals instead of fighting them.

— Kate Linthicum, Los Angeles Times, 6 Sep. 2026

Definition of criminals

Noun

Goaded on by a governor, who handpicked the university president and staged a coup to overthrow one athletic director in order to hire Kiffin, the bayou bandits are proudly wearing their black hats.

— Dana O’Neil, CNN Money, 9 Sep. 2026
Analysts warn each ransom payment fuels more crime as armed groups, from rural bandits to Islamist militants, raid schools, mosques and villages, with an average of 21 kidnappings reported daily.

— Dyepkazah Shibayan, Los Angeles Times, 27 Aug. 2026

Definition of bandits

Noun

The settler assassins were arrested by the police and as usual released within a few hours.

— David Shulman, The New York Review of Books, 26 Aug. 2026
Bannerman centers on the eponymous Paul Bannerman, a lethal covert operative who convinces a group of the world’s most deadly assassins to quit the spy game for a chance to lead normal lives in the suburbs of Connecticut.

— Nellie Andreeva, Deadline, 20 Aug. 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

Larger checks mean higher stakes for fraud Larger checks mean higher stakes for thieves.

— Daniel de Visé, USA Today, 5 Sep. 2026
The thieves, Argyriou said, apparently had removed the license plate from the trailer to prevent Flock license plate-reading cameras from tracking it.

— Eric Adler, Kansas City Star, 5 Sep. 2026

Definition of thieves

Noun

But the rollicking jollity that accompanies the final two acts, which includes the entrance of pirates and the abduction of Marina to a brothel, robs the ending of some of its pathos.

— Theater Critic, Los Angeles Times, 5 Sep. 2026
Speaking of singing pirates, Curry clearly fancied these kinds of roles, signing on to play the villainous Long John Silver in Muppet Treasure Island (1996), Brian Henson’s musical adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novel.

— ArsTechnica, ArsTechnica, 26 Aug. 2026

Definition of pirates

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“Thugs.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/thugs. Accessed 13 Sep. 2026.

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Synonyms of thugs

noun

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