felonious

C2+ Topic:Describing Qualities

US /fəˈloʊniəs/ UK /fəˈləʊniəs/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

adj
involving or constituting a serious crime; criminal

He was charged with felonious assault.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 adj · involving or constituting a... criminal illegal unlawful wicked villainous nefarious

Opposites

lawful legal innocent

Word family

Forms feloniously

Derived forms feloniouslyfeloniousness

Related forms felon felony

Appears in

Phrases (1)

See all

felonious intent
an intention to commit a serious criminal act

Adjective + noun

Etymology

From felony + -ous, ultimately from Old French felon ('wicked, a wicked person'), from Medieval Latin fello, of uncertain origin, perhaps from Frankish or Latin fel ('gall, bile').

felon Old French

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Describing Qualities Word Formation & Derivatives

External links

# felonious

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** adj
**IPA (US):** /fəˈloʊniəs/
**IPA (UK):** /fəˈləʊniəs/

## Meanings
1. involving or constituting a serious crime; criminal

## Examples
- He was charged with felonious assault.

## Synonyms
- criminal
- illegal
- unlawful
- wicked
- villainous
- nefarious

## Antonyms
- lawful
- legal
- innocent

## Derived Forms
- feloniously
- feloniousness

## Related Forms
- felon
- felony

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: felon

## Etymology
From felony + -ous, ultimately from Old French felon ('wicked, a wicked person'), from Medieval Latin fello, of uncertain origin, perhaps from Frankish or Latin fel ('gall, bile').

## AI Etymology
Felonious comes from felony + -ous, ultimately from Old French felon ('wicked, a wicked person'), from Medieval Latin fello, of uncertain origin, perhaps from Frankish or Latin fel ('gall, bile'). Morphologically, the account is both compositional and suffixal: -ous marks the visible structure by which the older base becomes the modern form. In present use, it is used as an adjective meaning "involving or constituting a serious crime; criminal", so the historical material remains connected with the current sense rather than standing as bare ancestry. The wider English family includes derivatives such as feloniously and feloniousness and related forms such as felon and felony, showing how the same historical material continues to organize neighboring vocabulary. The named historical forms include Old French felon, keeping the history tied to concrete forms rather than a loose resemblance.

## Topics
- Describing Qualities
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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