Criminalization

//ˌkɹɪmɪnəlaɪzˈeɪʃən// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The act of making a previously legal activity illegal, the act of making something a criminal offence. countable, uncountable

    "And of course, s/m players who participate in breath play will also be more vulnerable to criminalization under such a new law."

  2. 2
    legislation that makes something illegal wordnet
  3. 3
    The act of turning someone into a criminal by making their activities illegal. countable, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms
criminalisation

Example

More examples

"And of course, s/m players who participate in breath play will also be more vulnerable to criminalization under such a new law."

Etymology

From criminal + -ization or criminalize + -ation.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.