crime syndicate
8
4.5
- noun
- /kraɪm ˈsɪndɪkeɪt/
:
sindicato del crimen
- He runs the Australian end of an international crime syndicate...
- transnational crime syndicates
- organized crime syndicates
Examples
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They're associated with the Serbian crime syndicate up north.
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Of course, there's also the moral issue of allowing a mob-controlled crime syndicate to become a government.
Blog text (27) -
It's a front for a crime syndicate working out of Russia.
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It's determined he'll attempt to set up a new drug lab and form a crime syndicate.
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It's all a giant organized federal crime syndicate; it's totally corrupt.
Blog text (5) -
Even organized crime syndicates typically provide safety against some kinds of crime in their neighborhoods, thus providing a public good.
Academic text (1997) -
There was a chief of a Corsican crime syndicate.
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Apparently, he's the head of some kind of crime syndicate in that city.
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This informant has been a minor player in the Boston crime syndicate since he was a teenager.
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Chicago was home to the wealthiest and most powerful crime syndicate in America.
Synonyms
832
2.8
A group of people who commit crimes together
263
7.2
A group of people who work together to do illegal things
180
5.3
A group of criminals who run illegal businesses together
130
4.4
A secret group that commits crimes and controls illegal businesses
36
5.3
A group that makes and sells illegal drugs and uses violence or bribes officials to control the business
34
7.3
A group of people who run illegal businesses together
31
9.9
A person who belongs to a Japanese criminal gang or the gang itself
6
8.9
An organized criminal group in the United States linked to the Sicilian Mafia
1
9.0
A powerful Colombian drug group that controlled much of the world's cocaine trade in the 1980s and 1990s
1
9.9
An organized crime group from Naples, Italy that uses violence and blackmail
1
5.3
A group of people who secretly run illegal betting, like on sports or card games
1
6.7
An organized criminal group from Sicily that uses violence to control illegal businesses
A group of people who work together to commit crimes
A group of dishonest people who work together to commit crimes
How Organized
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'an organized group of criminals' is directly and predictably built from 'crime' (unlawful acts) + 'syndicate' (an organized group or association); a learner who knows both words can infer the combined meaning. This noun+noun composition is a regular, compositional pattern common across languages, so the phrase is transparently interpretable by B1 learners.
Etymology
Crime syndicate comes from syndicate, a word for a group that joins forces like a business to do a big job. So crime plus syndicate creates the image of a criminal 'team' or 'business' working together to carry out 'illegal activities', and that is why it means an organized group of criminals today.