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Cosa Nostra

Cosa Nostra

6 8.9
An organized criminal group in the United States linked to the Sicilian Mafia
  • noun
  • /ˈkoʊzə ˈnɔstrə/
  • NSFW
translation icon : Cosa Nostra
  • So they relocated him to Nevada and made him the head of the Las Vegas Cosa Nostra.
  • La Cosa Nostra
  • Cosa Nostra, the Mafia
  • Cosa Nostra family

I had a flashback to my days investigating the mafia La Cosa Nostra.

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Examples

  • What would happen to you... if some of your Cosa Nostra confederates... found you talking publicly about their organization?

  • Cosa Nostra is not unpatriotic, Senator.

  • Your club is part of Cosa Nostra?

  • Just Cosa Nostra... which translated means, "Our Thing," something like that.

  • That's what Cosa Nostra is.

  • Santos told me to say that he and the Cosa Nostra got Kennedy elected... and what was he doing turning on him now?

  • What does the Cosa Nostra have to do with the Castro regime in Cuba?

  • Various Italian-American organizations brought intense public pressure against the U.S. Department of Justice, the New York Times, and other media to discontinue references to the Cosa Nostra and the Mafia.

    Academic text (1992)
  • In 48 hours, the grand jury shuts down a three-year investigation... into the Chicago branch of La Cosa Nostra, of which Antonio Serrano is the boss.

  • The FBI has been working hard to dismantle the influence of Cosa Nostra in organized crime.

Synonyms

Mafia
vsCosa Nostra
130 4.4

A secret group that commits crimes and controls illegal businesses

is a US criminal group organized into families and linked to Sicilian groups
syndicate
vsCosa Nostra
34 7.3

A group of people who run illegal businesses together

is a US criminal group organized into families and connected with Sicilian groups
crime syndicate
vsCosa Nostra
8 4.5

An organized group of criminals who work together to do illegal things

is a specific US group structured into families and tied to Sicilian groups

Surface Forms

Cosa Nostra singular
Cosa Nostras plural

Morphology

Cosa + Nostra

Although the literal Italian components translate roughly as 'our thing', the phrase is a loaned proper name for the Sicilian Mafia in English and its criminal-syndicate sense is cultural and lexicalized. A B1 learner who knows the literal constituents (or not) would not reliably infer the meaning 'criminal syndicate' without prior cultural exposure, so the expression is idiomatic and opaque.

Etymology

Cosa Nostra comes from the Italian words cosa and nostra, literally meaning 'our thing'. Members used this private name to show loyalty and secrecy, so today Cosa Nostra refers to the Mafia, a secret criminal group.