Meaning

Primary

Culprit

Alternative

Criminal

Word Type

noun

Explanation

A crime person is a culprit, or a criminal.

Just note that 犯人 is mostly used to talk about the culprit of a specific crime, not criminals in general.

Reading

はんにん
  • Kyoko
    (Tokyo accent, female)
  • Kenichi
    (Tokyo accent, male)

Explanation

This is a jukugo word, which usually means on'yomi readings from the kanji. If you know the readings of your kanji you'll know how to read this as well.

Context

Context Sentences

クッキー食べた犯人、お父さんだった。

The culprit who ate the cookies turned out to be Dad.

まだ犯人つかまってないらしいよ。

I heard they haven't caught the culprit yet.

その犯人は、口は災いの元だということを思い知った。

The criminal learned the hard way that speaking carelessly can bring disaster.

Kanji Composition