SUSPECTS Synonyms: 90 Similar and Opposite Words

suspects 1 of 2

noun

plural of suspect

as in defendants

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suspects

2 of 2

verb

present tense third-person singular of suspect

as in guesses

to form an opinion from little or no evidence we suspected that the runaway was a little younger than the 16 she claimed to be—more like 13

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in doubts

to have no trust or confidence in I suspected him from the moment he said he was an old friend of my sister's, since I probably would have heard about him

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of suspects

Noun

Two suspects hit several businesses in the Fairfax District early Tuesday morning, with one suspect in police custody. — Julie Sharp, CBS News, 6 May 2026 Deem fired his weapon at the suspects, but no injuries were reported, and the disturbance suspect has not been apprehended. — Jade Jackson, IndyStar, 25 Nov. 2025 One of the suspects was found guilty of first-degree murder in June 2021, among a list of other charges, while the other suspect pleaded guilty in early 2020 to 17 counts, including murder charges. — Ray Sanchez, CNN Money, 11 Sep. 2025

Verb

Eaton suspects Parton wouldn’t have issued instructions for copying her routine. — Angela Haupt, Time, 26 Aug. 2026 As a result, Kaspersky suspects the ultimate goal was to use the infected head units to display ads and faking interactions with them to commit online ad fraud. — Michael Kan, PC Magazine, 21 Aug. 2026 But a cousin suspects foul play and wants further investigation. — ABC News, 17 Aug. 2026 Trafford suspects the next new signing at Leeds will generate the same kind of excitement, the next dopamine hit. — Beren Cross, New York Times, 15 Aug. 2026 Anna suspects the grave is for Sarah, Jake’s wife and the mother of his kids. — Sabrina Reed, Forbes.com, 15 Aug. 2026 But no one suspects Becca, who walks away with an additional seven points, leaping from a tie for last place (with Izzy and Erika) to a clean win, and the fanciest, courtliest, most butterfly-est wig of them all. — Tasha Robinson, Vulture, 11 Aug. 2026 One of his personal highlights was Mark Pellington’s 1999 political thriller Arlington Road, starring Jeff Bridges as a history professor who suspects his neighbor, played by Tim Robbins, of being involved in an anti-government extremist movement. — Melanie Goodfellow, Deadline, 7 Aug. 2026 In conversation with Withers, one suspects that the meditation has taken effect. — Daniel D'addario, Variety, 4 Aug. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for suspects

Noun

After the hearing, Ng told reporters that the defendants would appeal to the city's top court.

— ABC News, ABC News, 3 Sep. 2026
The other defendants — singer Denise Ho, scholar Hui Po Keung, and former pro-democracy lawmakers Margaret Ng and Cyd Ho — also served as trustees.

— Kanis Leung, Los Angeles Times, 3 Sep. 2026

Definition of defendants

Verb

Logan Wright, the author of Broken China, guesses that growth is now running at no more than 1% — and may even be zero.

— Andy Browne, semafor.com, 11 Aug. 2026
The system consists of a predictive algorithm that guesses how a robot is broken, along with robotic manipulators that actually take the broken robot apart.

— Kohava Mendelsohn, IEEE Spectrum, 10 Aug. 2026

Definition of guesses

Verb

Meta could introduce technical solutions, like automatically blurring faces, as Google does in Street View images, but Szydlowski doubts Meta would voluntarily make such a privacy-conscious change without regulatory or public pressure.

— Ashley Belanger, ArsTechnica, 21 Aug. 2026
The Israeli government said in a message in English that conversations were deep and constructive, while a message in Hebrew, attributed to an anonymous Israeli official, emphasized disagreements and said that Israel doubts Hamas will disarm.

— Brittney Melton, NPR, 18 Aug. 2026

Definition of doubts

Noun

Over the years, culprits have ranged from El Niño and climate change to the World Trade Organization, rock ‘n’ roll music and the fluoridation of water.

— Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Steven Tian and Stephen Henriques, CNBC, 29 Aug. 2026
Dakik flagged artificial sweeteners and excess caffeine as culprits.

— Hanna Wickes, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 28 Aug. 2026

Definition of culprits

Verb

As the force gradually assumes responsibility for police patrols, Haitian police will be able to redeploy to support operations in Kenscoff, the international force said.

— Jacqueline Charles, Miami Herald, 2 Sep. 2026
The problem is that the stock's valuation already assumes all of that keeps going, at a moment when the growth driver behind it (the AI-era power generation boom) is facing its first regulatory pushback.

— Tony Zhang, CNBC, 2 Sep. 2026

Definition of assumes

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suspecting

suspects

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“Suspects.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/suspects. Accessed 4 Sep. 2026.

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Synonyms of suspects

noun

verb

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