Theft

noun

noun ·1 syllable ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The act of stealing property. countable, uncountable

    "resource theft"

  2. 2
    the act of taking something from someone unlawfully wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
larcenylarcenystealingthieveryabstractionacquisition

Antonyms

All antonyms
giving

Example

More examples

"The man was charged with theft."

Etymology

From Middle English theft, thefte, þefte, þefþe, þiefþe, Old English þīefþ, from Proto-West Germanic *þiubiþu, from Proto-Germanic *þiubiþō, from *þeubaz (“thief”), equivalent to thief or thieve + -t (abstract nominal suffix). Cognate with Old Frisian thiuvethe, thiufthe (“theft”), dialectal Dutch diefte (“theft”), obsolete German Diebde (“theft”), Icelandic þýfð (“theft”).

Related phrases

grand theftgrand theft autoidentity theftjoke theftpetty theftretail thefttheft by findingtime theftwage theftwind theftgrand autostealing robbing

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