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 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 White thugs destroyed it in the 1921 Race Massacre. — Jasmine Desiree, Los Angeles Times, 12 May 2026 He’s beaten by thugs with a crowbar for an unfortunate outburst, exploited by neighbors in the council estate and arrested, all because people don’t understand Tourette syndrome. — Katie Walsh, Boston Herald, 24 Apr. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for thugs

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 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

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
That moment sealed his fate as one of the biggest Cubs villains in Cubs-Cardinals history.

— Paul Sullivan, Chicago Tribune, 26 July 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

Biometric authentication, such as Face ID or fingerprint recognition, generally offers stronger protection against opportunistic thieves because there’s no passcode for someone nearby to observe.

— Stefanie Waldek, Travel + Leisure, 26 July 2026
The torque theft recalls the brazen theft at the Louvre in Paris, in which thieves made off with $102 million worth of jewels in less than eight minutes, also in broad daylight.

— Maximilíano Durón, ARTnews.com, 25 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

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“Thugs.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/thugs. Accessed 30 Jul. 2026.

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Synonyms of thugs

noun

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