third-degree
third-degree adjective: the least severe level of felony, typically involving a lack of planning and/or the presence of various mitigating factors.
Adjective
third-degree (not comparable)
- The least severe level of felony, typically involving a lack of planning and/or the presence of various mitigating factors.
- The jury found him guilty of third-degree murder since he had only meant to beat the clown, not to kill him.
- An extremely severe level of damage, typically involving major scarring and damage to subcutaneous tissue as well as the epidermis.
Forms of third-degree
| alternative form | in the third degree |
|---|---|
| alternative form | 3rd degree |
Words formed from third-degree
- third-degree burn
- third-degree manslaughter
- third-degree murder
- third-degree relative
Phrases with third-degree
Questions about third-degree
- What does third-degree mean?
- Third-degree means the least severe level of felony, typically involving a lack of planning and/or the presence of various mitigating factors.
- What part of speech is third-degree?
- Third-degree is an adjective.
Words near third-degree in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: third-degree (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: “third-degree.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/third-degree. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
