felony
/ˈfɛləni/noun
felony is spelled F-E-L-O-N-Y: 6 letters and 3 syllables. It appears 5.9 times per million words in written English, the 10,028th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, felony means “A serious criminal offense, which, under United States federal law, is punishable by a term of imprisonment of not less than one year or by the death…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of felony is felonies.
How many letters and syllables are in felony?
| Letters | 6: F-E-L-O-N-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 5.9 times per million words; the 10,028th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is felony?
Felony appears 5.9 times per million words in written English, the 10,028th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce felony?
- /ˈfɛləni/
Felony has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-felony.wav, En-us-felony.oga, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of felony
- felonies plural
- fellonie
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does felony mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
USA serious criminal offense, which, under United States federal law, is punishable by a term of imprisonment of not less than one year or by the death penalty in the most serious offenses.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Felony in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense a serious criminal offense:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | crime |
| German | Verbrechen, schwere Straftat, Schwerverbrechen, Schwerstverbrechen, Kapitalverbrechen |
| Portuguese | crime grave |
| Spanish | crimen, delito, felonía |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does felony come from?
From Middle English felony, felonie, from Old French felonie (“evil, immoral deed”), from felon (“evildoer”). Ultimately of Proto-Germanic origin. More at felon. By surface analysis, felon + -y.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).