: the willful or malicious burning of property (such as a building) especially with criminal or fraudulent intent
Arson was determined to be the cause of the fire.
Examples of arson in a Sentence
The cause of the fire has not yet been determined, but investigators suspect arson.
The town has suffered a rash of arson attacks.
The town has suffered a rash of arsons.
Recent Examples on the Web
Pittman was convicted in 1991 and sentenced to death on three counts of first-degree murder, as well as arson and grand theft, after the killings carried out the year before.
—
Landon Mion, FOXNews.com, 19 Sep. 2025
The acts ranged from graffiti to attempted arson to relativisation or denial of the Nazi Holocaust.
—Jordan King, MSNBC Newsweek, 19 Sep. 2025
Murphy cited a recent arson attack at a warehouse run by a Ukrainian man in Leyton – a town in east London – carried out by proxies on behalf of Russia’s Wagner Group, as an example of this.
—Sophie Tanno, CNN Money, 18 Sep. 2025
Examples include the Animal Liberation Front and Earth Liberation Front arson and vandalism campaigns in the 1990s and 2000s, which were more likely to target property rather than people.
—Jonathan M. Gitlin, ArsTechnica, 18 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for arson
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Landon Mion, FOXNews.com, 19 Sep. 2025
The acts ranged from graffiti to attempted arson to relativisation or denial of the Nazi Holocaust.
—Jordan King, MSNBC Newsweek, 19 Sep. 2025
Murphy cited a recent arson attack at a warehouse run by a Ukrainian man in Leyton – a town in east London – carried out by proxies on behalf of Russia’s Wagner Group, as an example of this.
—Sophie Tanno, CNN Money, 18 Sep. 2025
Examples include the Animal Liberation Front and Earth Liberation Front arson and vandalism campaigns in the 1990s and 2000s, which were more likely to target property rather than people.
—Jonathan M. Gitlin, ArsTechnica, 18 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for arson
Cite this Entry
“Arson.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/arson. Accessed 22 Sep. 2025.
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Legal Definition
Etymology
Anglo-French arsoun, alteration of Old French arsin, literally, conflagration, from ars, past participle of ardre to burn
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