Vandalism

//ˈvændəlɪzm̩// noun

noun ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Willful damage to or destruction of any property, such as graffiti or defacement. countable, uncountable

    "As we turned down the street I was appalled by the vandalism: spray paint and smashed windows that were everywhere."

  2. 2
    willful wanton and malicious destruction of the property of others wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
acutenessanimalityatrociousnessatrocitybadnessbarbarity

Example

More examples

"Vandalism is a significant problem in this part of the city."

Etymology

Borrowed from French vandalisme, first used by Henri Grégoire to decry the pillage and destruction of art in the course of the French Revolution, in reference to the East Germanic tribe of the Vandals, which looted Rome in 455. By surface analysis, vandal + -ism.

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