assault
UK/əˈsɒlt//əˈsɔlt/
assault noun: a violent onset or attack with physical means, for example blows, weapons, etc.
Noun
assault (countable and uncountable, plural assaults)
- A violent onset or attack with physical means, for example blows, weapons, etc.
- The army made an assault on the enemy.
- The Spanish general prepared to renew the assault.1855–1858, William H[ickling] Prescott, History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain, volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Boston, Mass.: Phillips, Sampson, and Company, →OCLC
- A violent verbal attack, for example with insults, criticism, and the like
- She launched a written assault on the opposition party.
- An attempt to commit battery: a violent attempt, or willful effort with force or violence, to do hurt to another, but without necessarily touching the person, such as by raising a fist in a threatening manner, or by striking at the person and missing.
- The crime whose action is such an attempt.
- An act that causes someone to apprehend imminent bodily harm (such as brandishing a weapon).
- The tort whose action is such an act.
- A non-competitive combat between two fencers.
Verb
assault (third-person singular simple present assaults, present participle assaulting, simple past and past participle assaulted)
assault meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
assault in Hindi
- violent onset or attack with physical means
- आक्रमण ākramaṇ, प्रहार prahār, धावा dhāvā
- to attack
- आक्रमण ākramaṇ
assault in Tamil
- violent onset or attack with physical means
- தாக்குதல் tākkutal
- to attack
- தாக்கு tākku
assault in Marathi
- मारहाण, मारहाणीची
assault in Urdu
- violent onset or attack with physical means
- حَمْلَہ hamla, یُورِش yūriś
More languagesFewer languages
- assault in Bengali
- আক্রমণ akromon
- assault in Malayalam
- ആക്രമം ākramaṁ
- assault in Kannada
- ದಾಳಿಯಿಡು, ದಾಳಿಮಾಡು
- assault in Sanskrit
- धर्षण dharṣaṇa
- assault in Pashto
- حمله hamla, هجوم hojum
- assault in Tagalog
- pagsalakay, panlalaban
- assault in Arabic
- اِعْتِدَاء iʕtidāʔ, حَمْلَة ḥamla, هُجُوم hujūm, هَجْمَة hajma
Examples of assault in a sentence
- Unshaken bears the assault / Of their most dreaded foe, the strong southwest.1814, William Wordsworth, The Excursion, Book 5:
- In 2178, the Alliance retaliated with a crushing assault on the moon of Torfan, long used as a staging base by batarian-backed criminals.2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Batarians Codex entry:
Synonyms of assault
1 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of assault
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | assaults |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | assaults |
| present participle | assaulting |
| past participle | assaulted |
| past | assaulted |
Origin of assault
From Middle English assaut, from Old French noun assaut, derived from the past participle of the verb assalir, from Late Latin assalīre, from Latin ad (“at, towards”) + salīre (“jump”). See also assail. Spelling Latinized around 1530 to add an l.
Words formed from assault
- ag assault
- agg. assault
- aggravated assault
- amphibious assault ship
- assault and battery
- assault at arms
- assault course
- assault on the senses
- assault rifle
- assault weapon
- indecent assault
- meat assault
- sexual assault
- tubular assault
- verbal assault
- antiassault
- apesault
- counterassault
- cyberassault
- nonassault
- reassault
- microassault
- assaultable
- assaultee
- assaulter
- assaultive
- nonassaulted
- sexually assault
- unassaulted
Phrases with assault
Words that rhyme with assault
Questions about assault
- What does assault mean?
- Assault means a violent onset or attack with physical means, for example blows, weapons, etc.
- What is assault in Hindi?
- Assault in Hindi is आक्रमण (ākramaṇ), प्रहार (prahār), धावा (dhāvā). See Assault meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use assault in a sentence?
- Unshaken bears the assault / Of their most dreaded foe, the strong southwest.
- What part of speech is assault?
- Assault can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce assault?
- Assault is pronounced /əˈsɒlt/ (UK).
- What is the plural of assault?
- The plural of assault is assaults.
Words near assault in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: assault (page history and authors); assault (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); assault (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); धर्षण (Sanskrit) (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: En-us-assault.ogg.
Cite this entry: “assault.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/assault. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.