murder suspect
28
4.2
- noun
- /ˈmɜrdər ˈsʌspɛkt/
:
sospechoso de asesinato
- After reviewing the evidence, the detective identified him as the main murder suspect.
- murder suspect arrested
- search for the murder suspect
- teenage murder suspect
Examples
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Harry, we've got a murder suspect on the loose.
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Now that official's wife is a murder suspect.
Blog text (7) -
Every murder suspect in this town is given a choice.
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That guy's a murder suspect.
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At the time, you were a murder suspect.
Fiction book (1991) -
The murder suspect remains at large.
Blog text (8) -
Now I'm a murder suspect.
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Right now, he's acting like a very guilty murder suspect.
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I'm a murder suspect.
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A murder suspect in California was mistakenly released from jail yesterday due to a data entry error, Dibs said Netflix.
Synonyms
∞
3.4
A person thought to have committed a crime
Antonyms
How Suspected
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a person believed to have committed murder' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'murder' (the crime) with 'suspect' (a person thought to be responsible). This noun–noun composition follows a common and predictable pattern in English (and many other languages), so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily understand the phrase.
Etymology
The compound murder suspect joins murder (a killing) and suspect (someone people think may be guilty). Imagine police pointing at a person near a crime and saying they 'suspect' them; that image explains why murder suspect means 'a person believed to have committed murder but not yet been proven guilty'.