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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

gangster.

A member of a criminal or street gang.

8 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈɡæŋ.stəː/Received-Pronunciation[ˈɡæŋ.stəː]Received-Pronunciation/ˈɡæŋ.stɚ/[ˈɡæŋ.stɚ] ~ [ˈɡæŋ.stɹ̩]

  1. A member of a criminal or street gang.

  2. A member of a professional criminal organization (in organized crime): a racketeer.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰengʰ- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰóngʰos Proto-Germanic *gangaz Proto-West Germanic *gang Old English gang Middle English gang English gang Proto-West Germanic *-astrijā Old English -estre Middle English -estere English -ster English gangster From gang + -ster. First attested in 1884.

verb/ˈɡæŋ.stəː/Received-Pronunciation[ˈɡæŋ.stəː]Received-Pronunciation/ˈɡæŋ.stɚ/[ˈɡæŋ.stɚ] ~ [ˈɡæŋ.stɹ̩]

  1. To act like a gangster; to commit street crime or run a racket.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰengʰ- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰóngʰos Proto-Germanic *gangaz Proto-West Germanic *gang Old English gang Middle English gang English gang Proto-West Germanic *-astrijā Old English -estre Middle English -estere English -ster English gangster From gang + -ster. First attested in 1884.

adj/ˈɡæŋ.stəː/Received-Pronunciation[ˈɡæŋ.stəː]Received-Pronunciation/ˈɡæŋ.stɚ/[ˈɡæŋ.stɚ] ~ [ˈɡæŋ.stɹ̩]

  1. Characteristic of a gangster; (especially) admirable and audacious.

    error-unknown-tag · slang

  2. On friendly terms; cool.

    Internet · error-unknown-tag · slang
    We put an end to our beef. We're all gangster now.
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰengʰ- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰóngʰos Proto-Germanic *gangaz Proto-West Germanic *gang Old English gang Middle English gang English gang Proto-West Germanic *-astrijā Old English -estre Middle English -estere English -ster English gangster From gang + -ster. First attested in 1884.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.