Vandalism is the act — and the crime — of damaging things on purpose, especially things that belong to everyone: parks, schools, buses, toilets, statues, walls. It is an uncountable noun, so you say ‘a lot of vandalism’ or ‘an act of vandalism’, never ‘a vandalism’ or ‘two vandalisms’.

Vandalism is the act — and the crime — of damaging things on purposevandalism是故意破壞東西的行為——也是一種罪, especially things that belong to everyone尤其是屬於大家的東西: parks, schools, buses, toilets, statues, walls公園、學校、公車、廁所、雕像、牆壁。It is an uncountable noun它是不可數名詞, so you say 'a lot of vandalism' or 'an act of vandalism'所以要說「a lot of vandalism」或「an act of vandalism」, never 'a vandalism' or 'two vandalisms'不能說「a vandalism」或「two vandalisms」。

It shows up constantly in news and legal English (‘charged with vandalism’, ‘vandalism costs the city millions’), and in that setting it is the formal name for the offence.

It shows up constantly in news and legal English它常常出現在新聞和法律英文裡 ('charged with vandalism', 'vandalism costs the city millions')（「charged with vandalism」被控毀損罪、「vandalism costs the city millions」毀損行為讓這座城市損失數百萬）, and in that setting it is the formal name for the offence在這種場合裡，它是這項罪名的正式說法。

People also stretch it beyond broken glass: changing a Wikipedia page to nonsense is called vandalism, and so is a bad restoration of an old building or a shopping mall replacing a beautiful old street — that last use is a strong opinion dressed up as a legal word, and it is meant to be.

People also stretch it beyond broken glass大家也會把它用到打破玻璃以外的地方: changing a Wikipedia page to nonsense is called vandalism把維基百科的頁面改成亂七八糟的內容叫vandalism, and so is a bad restoration of an old building or a shopping mall replacing a beautiful old street老建築修得很差、或是購物中心取代了一條美麗的老街，也叫vandalism — that last use is a strong opinion dressed up as a legal word這最後一種用法，是把強烈的意見包裝成法律用字, and it is meant to be而且是刻意這樣包裝的。

Note that in American courts the charge is often written as ‘criminal mischief’ or ‘malicious mischief’ instead, so a student reading US news may not see the word where they expect it.

Note that in American courts the charge is often written as 'criminal mischief' or 'malicious mischief' instead要注意，在美國法庭上，這項罪名常常寫成「criminal mischief」或「malicious mischief」, so a student reading US news may not see the word where they expect it所以讀美國新聞的學生，可能在原本預期看到這個字的地方看不到它。