assassin
/əˈsæsɪn/
assassin noun: someone who intentionally kills a person, especially a professional who kills a public or political figure.
Noun
assassin (plural assassins)
- Someone who intentionally kills a person, especially a professional who kills a public or political figure.
- The hand that held the bond of so many jarring interests lay powerless beneath the pall. The perils of war had been about him, and the midnight assassin had watched his path; yet he died quietly in his bed.1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 233
- What has violence ever accomplished? What has it ever created? No martyr's cause can ever be stilled by an assassin’s bullet.1968, Robert F. Kennedy, On the Mindless Menace of Violence
- Any ruthless killer.
- A member of the Nizari Ismaili Muslim community of the Alamut Period.
- The Assassines, a nation depending of Phœnicia, are esteemed among the Mahometists of a soveraigne devotion and puritie of maners; they hold, that the readiest and shortest way to gaine Paradise, is to kill some one of a contrary religion[…].1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 29, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC
- An associated prime of a module.
Verb
assassin (third-person singular simple present assassins, present participle assassining, simple past and past participle assassined)
- To assassinate.
assassin meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
assassin in Hindi
- one who intentionally kills a person, especially a professional who kills a public figure
- छलघाती chalghātī, गुप्तघाती guptaghātī, हत्यारा hatyārā, विषकन्या viṣkanyā, गरकट garkaṭ, क़ातिल qātil
assassin in Tamil
- கொலையாளி, கொலையாள், கொலைகாரர், மறைந்திருந்து கொலை செய்பவர்
assassin in Marathi
- one who intentionally kills a person, especially a professional who kills a public figure
- छलघाती chalghātī, गुप्तघाती guptaghātī, हत्यारा hatyārā, विषकन्या viṣkanyā, मारेकरी mārekrī
assassin in Urdu
- one who intentionally kills a person, especially a professional who kills a public figure
- قَاتِل qātil, آدَمْکُش ādamkuś, ہَتْیَارَا hatyārā, خُونِی xūnī, گَرْکَٹ garkaṭ
More languagesFewer languages
- assassin in Bengali
- যেকোনো নিষ্ঠুর হত্যাকারী, গুপ্তহত্যা করা
- assassin in Malayalam
- കൊലയാളി
- assassin in Kannada
- ಹಂತಕ, ಕೊಲೆಗಡುಕ, ಕೊಲೆಗಾರ, ಕೊಲೆಪಾತಕ
- assassin in Gujarati
- કાતિલ kātil
- assassin in Odia
- ଛଳଘାତୀ chaḷaghāti, ଗୁପ୍ତଘାତୀ guptaghāti, ହତ୍ୟାରା hatyārā, ବିଷକନ୍ୟା biṣakanyā
- assassin in Sanskrit
- छलघाती chalaghātī, गुप्तघाती guptaghātī, हत्यारा hatyārā, विषकन्या viṣakanyā
- assassin in Nepali
- हत्यारोपी
- assassin in Tagalog
- manlilingo
- assassin in Arabic
- قَاتِل qātil, سَفَّاح saffāḥ, سَفَّاك saffāk, مُغْتَال muḡtāl
- assassin in Malay
- pembunuh upahan
- assassin in Persian
- آدمکش âdamkoš, حشاشین haššâšin
- assassin in Thai
- ผู้สังหาร pûu-sǎng-hǎan
- assassin in Vietnamese
- kẻ ám sát, sát thủ
- Sindhi
- قاتل qatil, خوني khooni, حشاشين hashashin
Examples of assassin in a sentence
- The assassin liked to make a clean kill, and thus favored small arms over explosives.
- The assassin exploded the car by means of a car bomb.
- He assembled a squad of ten to take on the assassin.
Forms of assassin
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | assassins |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | assassins |
| present participle | assassining |
| past participle | assassined |
| past | assassined |
Origin of assassin
From either French assassin or Italian assassino, from Arabic أَسَاسِيِّين (ʔasāsiyyīn, “people who are faithful to the foundation [of the faith]”) and the folkloric etymology Arabic حَشَّاشِين (ḥaššāšīn, “hashish users; low-lives”). The mathematical sense was introduced by Bourbaki, playing on the notation operatorname Ass(M) and the fact that an associated prime is the annihilator of an element, and so is said to kill that element.
Words formed from assassin
Phrases with assassin
Words that rhyme with assassin
Questions about assassin
- What does assassin mean?
- Assassin means someone who intentionally kills a person, especially a professional who kills a public or political figure.
- What is assassin in Hindi?
- Assassin in Hindi is छलघाती (chalghātī), गुप्तघाती (guptaghātī), हत्यारा (hatyārā). See Assassin meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is assassin?
- Assassin can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce assassin?
- Assassin is pronounced /əˈsæsɪn/ (UK).
- What is the plural of assassin?
- The plural of assassin is assassins.
Words near assassin in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: assassin (page history and authors); assassin (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); assassin (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); assassin (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); assassin (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); કાતિલ (Gujarati) (page history and authors); assassin (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: En-uk-assassin.oga.
Cite this entry: “assassin.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/assassin. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.