superpredator
superpredator noun: a youth who repeatedly commits violent crimes, said to be a result of being raised without morals.
Noun
superpredator (plural superpredators)
- A youth who repeatedly commits violent crimes, said to be a result of being raised without morals.
- In 1996 [DiIulio] authored an incendiary warning of a "rising tide of juvenile superpredators" [and in the National Review] "[a]ll that's left of the black community in […] urban America is deviant, delinquent, and criminal adults[.]"2001 February 9, Vincent Schiraldi, “DiIulio needs more scrutiny”, in Star News
- Superpredators theoretically arise from dysfunctional homes, inadequate schools, and morally bankrupt communities.2005, Gus Martin, Juvenile justice: process and systems
- A predator that eats other predators.
- Synonyms:
- hyperpredator
Synonyms of superpredator
Forms of superpredator
| plural | superpredators |
|---|
Origin of superpredator
From super- + predator. Sociology sense coined by American political scientist John DiIulio in 1995.
Questions about superpredator
- What does superpredator mean?
- Superpredator means a youth who repeatedly commits violent crimes, said to be a result of being raised without morals.
- What part of speech is superpredator?
- Superpredator is a noun.
- What is the plural of superpredator?
- The plural of superpredator is superpredators.
Words near superpredator in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: superpredator (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-superpredator.wav.
Cite this entry: “superpredator.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/superpredator. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.