What does "misdemeanor" mean?

A lesser criminal act in most common law legal systems, generally punished less severely than a felony.

What is a synonym for "misdemeanor"?

Common synonyms include: monkey business, atrocity, badness, breach, crime, crime.

noun

noun ·4 syllables ·Moderate ·College level

Noun

1
A lesser criminal act in most common law legal systems, generally punished less severely than a felony. US, historical
2
a crime less serious than a felony wordnet
3
Any act of misbehavior. US
"Because of the mother's lack of affection and the judgments made by everybody around her, the child is in opposition to everybody. Her misdemeanors may be partly the expression of her inner revolt."

"Tom pleaded guilty to misdemeanor drunken driving charges in New York."

From mis- + demeanor.

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