Criminal and Hoodlum

Similar meaning words

Criminal noun - A person who has committed a crime.

Usage example: car thieves, pickpockets, burglars, and other criminals

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Hoodlum is a synonym for criminal in person who breaks the law topic. In some cases you can use "Hoodlum" instead a noun "Criminal".

Hoodlum noun - A violent, brutal person who is often a member of an organized gang.

Usage example: a couple of hoodlums held up the convenience store

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Criminal is a synonym for hoodlum in crook topic. You can use "Criminal" instead a noun "Hoodlum", if it concerns topics such as gangster.

old	old criminal	old hoodlum
single	single criminal	single hoodlum
petty	petty criminal	petty hoodlum
young	young criminal	young hoodlum
Other adjectives: random, local, armed.

The Public Enemy, which helped establish the gangster film genre, opens with a title card explicitly stating that the studio did not seek to "glorify the hoodlum or criminal".

Source: Do Not Do This Cool Thing
In fact, every single hoodlum, criminal, and Jerkass they meet is "cool" by their standards.

Source: Horrible Judge of Character
Jak is a lowly hoodlum who aspires to become a master criminal, and to reach that goal he follows the advice of the little devil/imp Pop Corn.

Source: Creator / Benito Jacovitti

Cite this Source

Hoodlum and Criminal. (2016). Retrieved 2026, July 27, from https://thesaurus.plus/related/criminal/hoodlum

Criminal & Hoodlum. N.p., 2016. Web. 27 Jul. 2026. <https://thesaurus.plus/related/criminal/hoodlum>.

Hoodlum or Criminal. 2016. Accessed July 27, 2026. https://thesaurus.plus/related/criminal/hoodlum.

Google Ngram Viewer shows how "criminal" and "hoodlum" have occurred on timeline