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 These low-level thugs typically are not believed to be formally aligned with Iran. — Timothy Nerozzi, The Washington Examiner, 13 Oct. 2026 Saint played Edie Doyle, whose brother was murdered by thugs working for a mob boss running a longshoremen's union; her character becomes involved with Brando's pugilistic dockworker Terry Malloy. — David Morgan, CBS News, 6 Oct. 2026 The residents occasionally gather in a disused rec center but the meetings devolve into rants about immigrants, junkies, thugs and vigilantism. — Jessica Kiang, Variety, 26 Sep. 2026 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

Recent Examples of Synonyms for thugs

Noun

That is what makes seemingly basic personal information so useful to criminals.

— Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 10 Oct. 2026
Pillay, 85, received the news while attending a forum in Nuremberg, Germany, where the trials of Nazi war criminals helped lay the foundations of international law.

— Stefanie Dazio, Los Angeles Times, 9 Oct. 2026

Definition of criminals

Noun

The station is soon invaded by out-of-time baseball stars, fairytale villains, and unseasonal snow, all created by aliens eager to understand the concept of imagination.

— Richard Edwards, Space.com, 10 Oct. 2026
The zombie is one of the most elastic and grotesque villains in the genre, shifting dramatically from early-Hollywood films built on racial stereotypes to the now-popular vision of a monster that yearns to devour those still living.

— Angelica Jade Bastién, Vulture, 8 Oct. 2026

Definition of villains

Noun

The father pulls over, and the car is immediately swarmed over by bandits, who brutally kill him — plus his wife and two kids — with no mercy.

— Damon Wise, Deadline, 12 Oct. 2026
In the decade of violent conflicts that followed, attacks on border towns and seizures of American property by revolutionaries and bandits prompted the United States to send two military expeditions into Mexico.

— Robert B. Zoellick, Foreign Affairs, 9 Oct. 2026

Definition of bandits

Noun

Based on Nick Harkaway’s novel The Price You Pay, the show follows Jackie Price, a former drug queenpin hunted by seven elite assassins.

— Abbey White, HollywoodReporter, 10 Oct. 2026
The final sequence bookends the first with River, Sid, and Coe once again being stalked by the assassins but this time getting the worst of it.

— Scott Tobias, Vulture, 7 Oct. 2026

Definition of assassins

Noun

His warning was meant for American eyes and ears at least as much — if not more so — than for the government in Jerusalem that until now has encouraged the hoodlums by tolerating their violence.

— Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, Sun Sentinel, 11 Sep. 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 hoodlums

Noun

The thieves also damaged the main office building with copper wiring and components removed from rooftop systems and air conditioning units, police said.

— Carlos E. Castañeda, CBS News, 16 Oct. 2026
Europol has warned of an increase in museum robberies, with gold objects proving particularly attractive to thieves.

— Daniel Cassady, ARTnews.com, 16 Oct. 2026

Definition of thieves

Noun

Wild to me though that something that expensive would just be dropped off with porch pirates out there.

— Joe Kinsey OutKick, FOXNews.com, 8 Oct. 2026
Jamal convened a press conference proclaiming to be able to communicate by phone with Somali pirates who were holding a Nigerian ship hostage.

— Mia Cathell, The Washington Examiner, 5 Oct. 2026

Definition of pirates

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“Thugs.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/thugs. Accessed 18 Oct. 2026.

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Synonyms of thugs

noun

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