1
as in villain
a mean, evil, or unprincipled person
halt, vile miscreant, and face justice!
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in offender
a person who has committed a crime
a youthful offender surrounded in prison by hard-bitten miscreants who had committed just about every crime imaginable
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
1
as in evil
Related Words
Dissimilar Words
2
as in godless
Related Words
Dissimilar Words
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of miscreant
Inga, San Diego Union-Tribune, 23 Mar. 2026
Little wonder that fascists and other miscreants feel welcome.
—Tom Nichols, The Atlantic, 23 Feb. 2026
Michael Dorgan, Fox News, 29 Oct. 2024
The principal has an elaborate new security system installed with facial-recognition technology cameras positioned throughout the school, allowing for miscreant students to be identified and slapped with demerit points.
—David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 2 Sep. 2024
See All Example Sentences for miscreant
Noun
Yup, those $70,000-a-year-plus-benefits folks the city of San Diego has hired to creep around in the early-morning hours before the garbage trucks come and look for miscreants who have put plastic bags in the blue recycling bins or greenery in the black-now-gray trash bins.
—Inga, San Diego Union-Tribune, 23 Mar. 2026
Little wonder that fascists and other miscreants feel welcome.
—Tom Nichols, The Atlantic, 23 Feb. 2026
Adjective
The operation aims to crack down on miscreant behavior over the next few weeks with more than 200 extra police officers deployed to the area, including state troopers.
—Michael Dorgan, Fox News, 29 Oct. 2024
The principal has an elaborate new security system installed with facial-recognition technology cameras positioned throughout the school, allowing for miscreant students to be identified and slapped with demerit points.
—David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 2 Sep. 2024
See All Example Sentences for miscreant
Recent Examples of Synonyms for miscreant
Noun
-
Her bone-chilling performance earned her the MTV Movie Award for best villain, beating out the likes of Daniel Day-Lewis, Mike Myers, Willem Dafoe and Colin Farrell in her category.—
Patrick Ryan,
USA Today,
17 June 2026
-
This was my villain origin story.—
Lauryn Overhultz,
FOXNews.com,
17 June 2026
Noun
-
The offender is described as an African-American man between 40-45 years of age, weighing 180-200 pounds, and was last seen wearing a gray/black baseball cap, a light blue shirt, gray pants, and black gym shoes.—
Jeramie Bizzle,
CBS News,
22 June 2026
-
To better understand what drives a young person to commit these crimes, CNN spent months searching for prior offenders willing to speak about their experience.—
Hanako Montgomery,
CNN Money,
22 June 2026
Adjective
-
Zoroastrianism’s core tenets – a single God, the cosmic struggle between good and evil – are widely believed by historians to have formed the theological groundwork for the major Abrahamic religions.—
Rhea Mogul,
CNN Money,
21 June 2026
-
Not all devices are evil, the toys realize, and even the best machines—like even the best toys—will eventually break down and get tossed aside for a shiny new model.—
Justin Chang,
New Yorker,
19 June 2026
Adjective
-
What better way to distinguish God-fearing Americans from the godless communists of the Soviet Union than to put God on the money?—
David Williamson,
The Orlando Sentinel,
14 June 2026
-
This is why calls to restore power to government institutions ring hollow, and why the Democratic Party’s faith in institutions can appear naive and godless.—
Scott Warren,
The Atlantic,
13 June 2026
Noun
-
Shinnecock was still a brute of a test, but the red numbers on the white scoreboard were an unfamiliar site for this course.—
Doug Ferguson,
Los Angeles Times,
19 June 2026
-
These brutes commonly exceed 50 pounds.—
Keith Sutton,
Outdoor Life,
18 June 2026
Noun
-
This makes your accounts much harder to break into, even if a criminal gets control of your phone number.—
Kurt Knutsson,
FOXNews.com,
19 June 2026
-
And historically, denaturalization has been reserved for the most egregious offenders, such as human rights abusers and violent criminals.—
Camilo Montoya-Galvez,
CBS News,
18 June 2026
Adjective
-
Philadelphia already boasts a wicked rotation with Cristopher Sanchez, Zack Wheeler and Jesus Luzardo.—
Dieter Kurtenbach,
Mercury News,
16 June 2026
-
Spark, who was born in 1918 and died in 2006, had a talent for writing wicked little books that defy easy categorization; her coming-of-age stories feel like horror stories, her horror stories feel like love stories, and her love stories feel like acid satire.—
Rachel Syme,
New Yorker,
10 June 2026
Adjective
-
Seven Mountains has brought the language of spiritual warfare and demon-fighting into the mainstream of evangelicalism, through a network of pastors who view themselves as prophets and apostles engaged in a battle against evil secular forces.—
Eliza Griswold,
New Yorker,
22 June 2026
-
Since the Six-Day War in 1967, which resulted in the emergence of the messianic Gush Emunim movement and the planting of settlements in the West Bank, changes within Israeli society have alienated many American Jews, as well as secular, left-wing Israelis.—
Adam Louis-Klein,
The Atlantic,
18 June 2026
Cite this Entry
“Miscreant.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/miscreant. Accessed 24 Jun. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
