Gangster

How to spell gangster

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce gangster

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does gangster mean?

1. nounA member of an organised group of violent criminals.

Gangster in a sentence

• The film portrays a ruthless gangster rising through the city underworld.

• Police arrested a notorious gangster wanted for extortion.

Where does gangster come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word combines 'gang' with the old English agent suffix '-ster', which once marked a person associated with an activity (as in 'songster' or 'spinster'). 'Gang' itself comes from the Old English 'gang', meaning 'a going, a journey, or a way of walking', a sense closely related to Old Norse 'gangr'; over the centuries it drifted from 'a going together' to 'a group that goes about together', and finally to an organised band, often a criminal one. The compound 'gangster' was coined in American English around the 1890s to describe a member of a criminal gang, and it became widespread during the Prohibition era of the 1920s and 1930s. The spelling is fairly transparent, but the silent-feeling cluster in the middle, where 'gang' meets 'ster', is the only thing to watch. The same '-ster' suffix that gives us 'youngster' and 'trickster' is exactly what is doing the work here.

How the word is built

• gang (organised band of criminals)
• -ster (agent/person suffix)