Crimes
nounActs that break the law and are punishable by the state.
How to spell crimes
6 letters · 1 syllable
How to pronounce crimes
What does crimes mean?
- nounActs that break the law and are punishable by the state.
Crimes in a sentence
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The detective spent years investigating violent crimes across the city.
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New legislation increased the penalties for financial crimes.
Where does crimes come from?
Language of origin: Latin
This is the plural of 'crime', which English borrowed in the 1300s from the Old French 'crime', itself taken directly from the Latin 'crimen'. The Latin word originally meant a charge or accusation made against someone, and it was built on the verb 'cernere', meaning 'to sift, to decide, to judge'. Over time the meaning slid from the accusation itself to the wrongful act that prompted it, which is the sense we keep today. The same judging root sits behind related words such as 'discern' and 'certain', where the idea of sifting and deciding still lingers. The spelling stays comfortably regular: the silent final 'e' of 'crime' is simply followed by an 's', so the only thing to watch is resisting any urge to double a letter.
How the word is built
- crim- (from Latin crimen: charge, accusation, offence)
- -e
- -s (plural suffix)
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