What does murderer mean?
A murderer is a person who deliberately kills another person, usually in circumstances that amount to the crime of murder. The word is used in legal reporting, historical accounts, fiction, and ordinary discussion of serious crimes. It carries a strong association with intentional, unlawful, and premeditated violence, and it is therefore more serious in tone than the broader term 'killer.' In many contexts, the distinction is legal rather than merely descriptive: murder is a specific criminal offence, while causing a death can involve other offences such as manslaughter, negligent homicide, or lawful killing in self-defence. The term is frequently paired with words such as 'suspected,' 'convicted,' and 'serial,' although 'serial killer' is often more idiomatic than 'serial murderer' in general usage. Its strong moral and emotional associations make it especially common in crime fiction and news reports.
nounA person who deliberately kills another person, especially one who commits murder. The term is also used more broadly for a killer, but it normally carries a more serious and deliberate sense.
- A person who intentionally kills another person, especially a person who commits the crime of murder; more broadly, someone who kills another person.
"The police arrested the suspected murderer after an overnight search."
"The court sentenced the convicted murderer to life imprisonment."
"In the story, the murderer hides in the old warehouse while the detective searches for clues."
The regular plural is 'murderers.'
"The detectives believed the murderers had left the city before dawn."
The word 'murderer' is more than a dramatic label: in law, murder is a specific offence involving an intentional unlawful killing with defined circumstances and penalties.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of murderer
The word is formed from the Middle English noun 'murder' and the suffix '-er,' which forms an agent noun meaning 'one who does something.' The older English form 'morþor' belonged to the Germanic family of words for violent killing, with cognates in Old Norse 'mord' and German 'Mord.' The agentive spelling developed naturally from the long-established word for the act of killing.
Related word forms
How murderer is actually used
The word is especially common in legal, journalistic, and narrative contexts. 'Killer' is broader and may refer to someone responsible for a death without necessarily implying the legal definition of murder.