Word.ws English Dictionary

active shooter

/ˌæk.tɪv ˈʃuːtɚ/

active shooter noun: a person actively engaged in a shooting spree.

Noun

active shooter (plural active shooters)

  1. (US) A person actively engaged in a shooting spree.
    • In most cases, active shooters use firearms and there is no pattern or method to their selection of victims.
    • “When you have an active shooter going after people at random—a shooter with a plan,” he said, “that's completely different than your typical barricade hostage situation.”1999 April 28, Timothy Egan, quoting Larry Glick, “School Attack May Bring Changes in Police Tactics”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see active, shooter.
    • Although I had been an active shooter since I was thirteen as a young twenty-five year old^([sic]) police officer I was convinced by a Coast Guard firearms instructor to abstain from shooting a live round for six months in order to rid myself of a badly reconditioned motor response.1962, Police, page 33
    • First there is the active shooter who is highly interested in either competition or hunting.1967 July 10, U.S. Senate, Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency, “Federal Firearms Act”, in Hearings, page 320

Examples of active shooter in a sentence

  • Today, the sound of gunshots often prompts “active shooter” warnings on social media, whether or not the event fits the F.B.I.’s definition of the term.2021 May 5, Jacey Fortin, “What Does ‘Active Shooter’ Really Mean?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
  • Today Howard is still an active shooter and still enjoys hunting the local game.1986, Desmos of Delta Sigma Delta, page 27:

Forms of active shooter

pluralactive shooters

Origin of active shooter

The sense “individual engaged in a shooting spree” was popularized in the wake of the Columbine High School massacre (1999).

Words formed from active shooter

Questions about active shooter

What does active shooter mean?
Active shooter means a person actively engaged in a shooting spree.
How do you use active shooter in a sentence?
Today, the sound of gunshots often prompts “active shooter” warnings on social media, whether or not the event fits the F.B.I.’s definition of the term.
What part of speech is active shooter?
Active shooter is a noun.
How do you pronounce active shooter?
Active shooter is pronounced /ˌæk.tɪv ˈʃuːtɚ/ (US).
What is the plural of active shooter?
The plural of active shooter is active shooters.

Words near active shooter in the dictionary

  1. active radars
  2. active radicalization
  3. active recall
  4. active rock
  5. active service
  6. active shooter
  7. active shooter drill
  8. active shooters
  9. active solar
  10. active sonar
  11. active sonars

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: active shooter (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-active shooter.wav.

Cite this entry: “active shooter.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/active_shooter. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.