Robbery
nounThe crime of taking property unlawfully from a person or place, especially by using force or threats.
How to spell robbery
7 letters · 3 syllables
How to pronounce robbery
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does robbery mean?
- nounThe crime of taking property unlawfully from a person or place, especially by using force or threats.
Robbery in a sentence
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The bank robbery was caught on three security cameras.
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Police charged two men in connection with the jewellery shop robbery.
Where does robbery come from?
Language of origin: French
Robbery came into English in the 1200s from the Old French roberie, which named the act of plundering or stealing. That noun was built on the verb rober, meaning 'to rob' or 'to despoil', which the French had themselves taken from a Germanic root: the Frankish word raubon, meaning 'to seize as spoils'. The same ancient Germanic root lies behind the modern English 'rob' and is even related to the word 'reave' (as in 'bereave'), once meaning to take by force. The doubled b in robbery preserves the short vowel of the base verb 'rob', so spelling the verb first and then adding the -bery ending is a reliable way to remember it. The trap is hearing the unstressed ending and writing a single b or the wrong vowel.
How the word is built
- rob (to steal)
- -ery (noun suffix for an action or practice)
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