MEANING:
Noun: theft, larceny.
Varkaus appears in our example in the nominative plural, varkaudet as part of the compound word polkupyörävarkaudet, which means ”bicycle thefts.”
DERIVED FROM:
Varkaus comes from varas (”thief”)+ -uus (a suffix often used to create nouns from adjectives, though in this case it helps create another, similar noun.)
EXTRA CREDIT:
Let’s translate the whole headline, Poliisin selitys ilmiölle: Helppo myydä eteenpäin. Polkupyörävarkaudet yleistyneet rajusti alkuvuonna Helsingissä.
It translates loosely as ”The police explanation for the phenomenon: Easy to sell, bicycle theft becomes sharply more common early in the year in Helsinki.”
Finnish Word of the Day 