# usual suspects

> English word · Noun

## Definitions
1. The people, often scapegoats, routinely arrested in response to a crime.
2. The people or things that would be routinely expected to appear in a particular context.

## Etymology
The phrase was commonly used in New York in the 1930s, by both criminals and law enforcement, often with regard to baseless arrests. The phrase was popularized more broadly by its appearance in the film Casablanca (1942), especially since the 1990s.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/usual-suspects