actus reus

1. 1.

   activity that transgresses moral or civil law

   “he denied any wrongdoing”

   Synonymswrongdoingwrongful conductmisconduct

   Broaderactivity

   Narrowerbrutalizationtrespasstortmalversationmisbehaviorderelictionmalfeasancemisfeasancemalpracticeperversion

Questions about actus reus

What does actus reus mean?

actus reus means "activity that transgresses moral or civil law".

What is another word for actus reus?

Close synonyms include wrongdoing, wrongful conduct, misconduct. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is actus reus a common word?

actus reus is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.