mayhem

Syllables: may·hemUK/ˈmeɪhɛm//ˈmeɪˌ(h)ɛm/

mayhem noun: the criminal offence of maiming (“seriously wounding”) a person such that their ability to defend or protect themselves is weakened or completely removed; (countable) an instance of this.

Noun

mayhem (usually uncountable, plural mayhems)

(UK, historical, usually, criminal law) The criminal offence of maiming (“seriously wounding”) a person such that their ability to defend or protect themselves is weakened or completely removed; (countable) an instance of this.
- to commit mayhem
- A man's limbs, (by vvhich for the preſent vve only underſtand thoſe members vvhich may be uſeful to him in fight, and the loſs of vvhich only amounts to mayhem by the common lavv) are alſo the gift of the vviſe creator; to enable man to protect himſelf from external injuries in a ſtate of nature....1765, William Blackstone, “Of the Absolute Rights of Individuals”, in Commentaries on the Laws of England, book I (Of the Rights of Persons), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 126
(US, broadly, usually, criminal law) The criminal offence of maiming a person by depriving them of the use of any of their limbs.
- There is a story told of a case where a notorious character was charged with the unusual crime of "mayhem"—biting off another man's finger. The defendant's counsel secured adjournment after adjournment—no one knew why. […] He [the defendant] had not a tooth in his head. The delay had been...1906, Arthur [Cheney] Train, “Tricks of the Trade”, in The Prisoner at the Bar: Sidelights on the Administration of Criminal Justice, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, page 316
(figuratively, usually) Often preceded by to cause or make: great confusion, destruction, disorder, or trouble; chaos, turmoil; (countable) an instance of this.
- In all the mayhem, some children were separated from their parents.
- What if the legendary hero Robin Hood had been born into the mayhem of the 20th century?
Synonyms:

bedlam, car crash, chaos, confusion, disarray, disorder, disorganization, dog's breakfast, dog's dinner, free-for-all
(figuratively, usually) Violent conduct, especially the violent infliction of injury on a person or thing.
- The fighting dogs created mayhem in the flower beds.
- This same man, after failing through intimidation to elicit from me the names of our editorial contributors, against giving which he knew me to be pledged, beat himself weary upon me with a raw hide, I not resisting, and then pantingly threatened me with permanent disfiguring mayhem, if ever again...1870–1871 (date written), Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], “”, in Roughing It, Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company [et al.], published 1872, →OCLC, page 581

Verb

mayhem (third-person singular simple present mayhems, present participle mayheming, simple past and past participle mayhemed)

(archaic, transitive) To commit the criminal offence of mayhem (noun sense 1) on (someone); to maim.
- It is a gentle holineſſe […] to riſe vp in routes and fight againſt chriſten men, and deſtroy […] many a good religious houſe, ſpoyled, meyhemed, ⁊ ſlaine many a good vertuous man, robbed, polluted, and pulled downe manye a goodly church of Chriſt.1528, Thomas More, “A Dialogue Concernynge Heresyes & Matters of Religion […]. Chapter XIV.”, in Wyllyam Rastell [i.e., William Rastell], editor, The Workes of Sir Thomas More Knyght, […], London...
- The breache of the Peace that may be practiſed againſt the perſon, climbeth to the deſtruction of the perſon, by ſundry degrees: as by Threates, Affray or aſſault, and violent and malicious ſtriking, and beating, vvounding, mayheming and killing.1581, William Lambard[e], “Of the Breach of the Peace without a Multitude, against the Person, and How It may be Stayed, or Punished by one Iustice of Peace out of the Sessions”, in Eirenarcha: Or Of...
(archaic, figuratively, transitive) To violently inflict injury on (someone); to injure, to wound.
- The law had regarded them [black people] as mere chattels; and it had passed into a proverb in the nation, that they had "no rights which white men were bound to respect." To buy, to sell, to task, to whip, to mayhem this race at will, had been from immemorial days a right which the now subjugated...1879, [Albion Winegar Tourgée], “‘Light Shineth in Darkness’”, in A Fool‘s Errand. […], New York, N.Y.: Fords, Howard, & Hulbert, →OCLC, page 287
- Outside the enclosures a parade of pugs went solemnly through their exercises—skipping rope, mayheming the punching bags, pawing the air at invisible opponents.1942 April 20, “Nostalgia on Jacobs Beach: Fight Club’s End Raises the Ghosts of Famous Bygone Battles”, in Newsweek, volume XIX, number 16, New York, N.Y.: Newsweek, Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 56...
Synonyms:

abuse, annoy, bewound, damage, damnify, dere, do damage to, do for, do ill, do violence to

mayhem meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

mayhem in Hindi

mayhem, turmoil, unrest, chaos: खलबली khalbalī

mayhem in Urdu

سفاکانہ قتل

mayhem in Bengali

বিশৃঙ্খলা, অরাজকতা

mayhem in Malayalam

great confusion, destruction, disorder, or trouble; instance of this: കുഴപ്പം kuḻappaṁ, നാശം nāśaṁ
violent conduct, especially the violent infliction of injury: നാശം nāśaṁ

More languagesFewer languages

mayhem in Kannada: ಅಪಾಯಕರ

Examples of mayhem in a sentence

There is a story told of a case where a notorious character was charged with the unusual crime of "mayhem"—biting off another man's finger.1906, Arthur [Cheney] Train, “Tricks of the Trade”, in The Prisoner at the Bar: Sidelights on the Administration of Criminal Justice, New...
We terrified the mare and foal. / The fox stood still and far too bold. / So we strung him up, brush neatly folded— / Mayhem, maybe.1981 (date recorded), Ian Anderson, “Mayhem, Maybe”, in 20 Years of Jethro Tull [Disc 2: Flawed Gems and Other Sides of Tull], performed by...
In the 1870's, a young newspaper editor named Henry George walked the streets of San Francisco lamenting the paradoxical economic mayhem that lay all around him.1981 May 27, William G. Tucker, “George, Keynes, Reagan, rabbit and hat”, in The New York Times (A section), New York, N.Y.: The New York...
But, my friends, there is simply no excuse for the mayhem that followed.1992 May 19 (date delivered), Dan Quayle, “[Appendix: Selected Speeches] Address to the Commonwealth Club of California, May 19, 1992 (on...

All 30 example sentences with mayhem

Synonyms of mayhem

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of mayhem

Forms of mayhem

Noun
plural	mayhems
alternative form	maihem
Verb
third-person singular present	mayhems
present participle	mayheming
past participle	mayhemed
past	mayhemed

Origin of mayhem

The noun is derived from Late Middle English mayehem, maihem, a late form of maym, maim (“disfigurement, injury, mutilation; disfigured person”) (whence modern English maim (noun)), from Anglo-Norman mahaim, mahainne (“mutilation”), and Old French mehaing, meshaing (“bodily harm, loss of limb”). The verb is partly: * from Late Middle English mahaym, maheyme, a late form of maimen, maymen (“to injure seriously, mutilate, maim; to damage; to destroy; to afflict with disease; to dispossess”) (whence modern English maim (verb)), from Anglo-Norman mahaigner, mahimer, Middle French mehaignier, and Old French mehaingner, meshaignier (“to destroy; to harm; to injure, maim”); and * from the modern English noun. The etymology of the Old French words is uncertain; they are possibly from Proto-Germanic *maidijaną (“to damage; to hurt; to change; to exchange”) (compare Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌹𐌳𐌾𐌰𐌽 (maidjan, “to alter, falsify”); Middle High German meidem, meiden (“gelding”); Old Norse meiða (“to injure”)), from Proto-Indo-European *meyth₂- (“to change; to exchange; etc.”), possibly from *mey- (“to change; to exchange”). If so, the English word is a doublet of mad.

Words formed from mayhem

Questions about mayhem

What does mayhem mean?: Mayhem means the criminal offence of maiming (“seriously wounding”) a person such that their ability to defend or protect themselves is weakened or completely removed; (countable) an instance of this.
What is mayhem in Hindi?: Mayhem in Hindi is खलबली (khalbalī). See Mayhem meaning in Hindi.
How do you use mayhem in a sentence?: There is a story told of a case where a notorious character was charged with the unusual crime of "mayhem"—biting off another man's finger.
What part of speech is mayhem?: Mayhem can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce mayhem?: Mayhem is pronounced /ˈmeɪhɛm/ (UK).
What is the plural of mayhem?: The plural of mayhem is mayhems.

Words near mayhem in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: mayhem (page history and authors); खलबली (Hindi) (page history and authors); mayhem (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Mayhem (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); mayhem (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). 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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-mayhem.wav.

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