Word.ws English Dictionary

overcriminalization

overcriminalization noun: excessive criminalizing: making too many things criminal.

Noun

overcriminalization (uncountable)

  1. Excessive criminalizing: making too many things criminal.
    • This short article explains how the present American overcriminalization violates biblical principles of justice.2011, Craig A. Stern, “Crimes in America: Too Much of a Good Thing”, in The Christian Lawyer

Antonyms of overcriminalization

Forms of overcriminalization

alternative formovercriminalisation

Origin of overcriminalization

From over- + criminalize + -ation.

Questions about overcriminalization

What does overcriminalization mean?
Overcriminalization means excessive criminalizing: making too many things criminal.
What part of speech is overcriminalization?
Overcriminalization is a noun.

Words near overcriminalization in the dictionary

  1. overcreeping
  2. overcreeps
  3. overcrept
  4. overcrewed
  5. overcriminalisation
  6. overcriminalization
  7. overcritical
  8. overcritically
  9. overcriticalness
  10. overcriticism
  11. overcriticize

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: overcriminalization (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:

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