criminal
n. countablen. a person who has done something illegal and has been caught or punished by the law.
n. a person who has committed a crime or has been legally convicted of an offence.
The police caught the criminal shortly after the robbery.
The judge sentenced the criminal to five years in prison for his role in the fraud.
Criminologists often study the social and economic factors that might lead a person to become a habitual criminal rather than a law-abiding citizen.
From Middle English cryminal, borrowed from Anglo-Norman criminal, from Late Latin criminalis, from Latin crimen (“crime”).
Commonly modified by adjectives such as 'convicted', 'hardened', or 'petty'.
He is a crimeHe is a criminalLearners sometimes use the abstract noun 'crime' when they mean the person who committed the act.