Word.ws English Dictionary

hoodlum

Syllables: hood·lum/ˈhuːdləm/

hoodlum noun: a gangster; a hired thug.

Noun

hoodlum (plural hoodlums)

  1. A gangster; a hired thug.
    • When the hoodlums reach their headquarters...1942 June 16, Jerry Siegel, “The Case of the Crimeless Crimes”, in Action Comics, volume 1, number 51, page 3
    • There is no question the MS-13 gang must be stopped. It is a vile organization of hoodlums with no regard for life.2018 September 19, Lisa Ling, “How the US helped create Trump’s ‘violent animals’”, in CNN
  2. A rough or violent youth.

hoodlum meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Malayalam

hoodlum in Hindi

a rough or violent youth
गुंडा guṇḍā

hoodlum in Tamil

முரடன், மூர்க்கன்

hoodlum in Urdu

hoodlum
لفنگا lafaṅgā

hoodlum in Malayalam

thug, hooligan, lout
തെമ്മാടി, തെരുവുപോക്കിരി, പോക്രി, പോക്കിരി, ഗജപോക്കിരി, കവലച്ചട്ടമ്പി

Examples of hoodlum in a sentence

  • In Sam Mendes's excellent gangster movie Road to Perdition (2002), he tested the boundaries further playing a hitman – but while we know he's a killer, we never really see him go full-pelt hoodlum.2021 February 9, Christina Newland, “Is Tom Hanks part of a dying breed of genuine movie stars?”, in BBC:
  • Caesar Enrico “Rico” Bandello is a hoodlum who rises swiftly in Chicago’s mob world, in the 1931 film “Little Caesar.” Played by Edward G.2023 August 20, Richard Galant, “Opinion: A powerful weapon for prosecutors is now in the hands of Fani Willis”, in CNN:
  • The state’s police spokesman Wasiu Abiodun told CNN in a statement that operatives arrested 11 armed “hoodlums” who set fire to a government building after looting it.2024 August 1, Nimi Princewill and Stephanie Busari, “Violence erupts as Nigerians protest hunger across the nation”, in CNN:

Synonyms of hoodlum

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of hoodlum

Forms of hoodlum

pluralhoodlums

Origin of hoodlum

First attested in a December 1866 Daily Alta California article, which mentions "the 'Hoodlum Gang' of juvenile thieves". Several possible origins have been proposed. It may derive from a Germanic word like Swabian hudelum (“disorderly”) or Bavarian Haderlump (“ragamuffin”). Herbert Asbury's book The Barbary Coast: An Informal History of the San Francisco Underworld (1933, A. A. Knopf, New York) says the word originated in San Francisco from a particular street gang's call to unemployed Irishmen to "huddle 'em" (to beat up Chinese migrants), after which San Francisco newspapers took to calling street gangs "hoodlums".

Words formed from hoodlum

Questions about hoodlum

What does hoodlum mean?
Hoodlum means a gangster; a hired thug.
What is hoodlum in Hindi?
Hoodlum in Hindi is गुंडा (guṇḍā). See Hoodlum meaning in Hindi.
How do you use hoodlum in a sentence?
In Sam Mendes's excellent gangster movie Road to Perdition (2002), he tested the boundaries further playing a hitman – but while we know he's a killer, we never really see him go full-pelt hoodlum.
What part of speech is hoodlum?
Hoodlum is a noun.
How do you pronounce hoodlum?
Hoodlum is pronounced /ˈhuːdləm/.
What is the plural of hoodlum?
The plural of hoodlum is hoodlums.

Words near hoodlum in the dictionary

  1. hooding
  2. hoodla
  3. hoodless
  4. hoodlike
  5. hoodline
  6. hoodlum
  7. hoodlumish
  8. hoodlumism
  9. hoodlumisms
  10. hoodlumize
  11. hoodlumized

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hoodlum (page history and authors); hoodlum (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); لفنگا (Urdu) (page history and authors); hoodlum (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-hoodlum.wav.

Cite this entry: “hoodlum.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hoodlum. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.