CRIMINALITY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does criminality mean? 

• CRIMINALITY (noun)
  The noun CRIMINALITY has 1 sense:

1. the state of being a criminal

  Familiarity information: CRIMINALITY used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CRIMINALITY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The state of being a criminal

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

criminalism; criminality; criminalness

Hypernyms ("criminality" is a kind of...):

guilt; guiltiness (the state of having committed an offense)

Derivation:

criminal (guilty of crime or serious offense)

 Context examples 

Elizabeth’s heart-rending eloquence failed to move the judges from their settled conviction in the criminality of the saintly sufferer.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

He had almost as much as declared his conviction of her criminality last night: what mysterious cause withheld him from accusing her?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)