Word.ws English Dictionary

assault rifle

/əˈsɒlt ˈɹaɪfəl//əˈsɔlt ˈɹaɪfəl/

assault rifle noun: a military select-fire rifle or carbine that fires an intermediate-power cartridge, from a detachable magazine.

Noun

assault rifle (plural assault rifles)

  1. A military select-fire rifle or carbine that fires an intermediate-power cartridge, from a detachable magazine.
    • A man dressed as a lab tech, his blue scrubs startlingly pale against the vivid red and black chaos, moved into sight from behind the SUV. He carried an assault rifle.2014, Jeff Jacobson, Growth, page 23
  2. (colloquial) Any firearm meeting the definition of an assault weapon, and in the form of a rifle.

assault rifle meaning in Arabic and Indonesian

assault rifle in Arabic

a rifle
بُنْدُقِيَّة هُجُومِيَّة bunduqiyya hujūmiyya

assault rifle in Indonesian

a rifle
senapan serbu

Forms of assault rifle

pluralassault rifles

Origin of assault rifle

Calque of German Sturmgewehr (literally “storm rifle”). The Maschinenpistole 44 was called the Sturmgewehr by Adolf Hitler, whence it was renamed to represent the separate class of firearm it represented.

Questions about assault rifle

What does assault rifle mean?
Assault rifle means a military select-fire rifle or carbine that fires an intermediate-power cartridge, from a detachable magazine.
What is assault rifle in Arabic?
Assault rifle in Arabic is بُنْدُقِيَّة هُجُومِيَّة (bunduqiyya hujūmiyya). See Assault rifle meaning in Arabic.
What part of speech is assault rifle?
Assault rifle is a noun.
How do you pronounce assault rifle?
Assault rifle is pronounced /əˈsɒlt ˈɹaɪfəl/ (UK).
What is the plural of assault rifle?
The plural of assault rifle is assault rifles.

Words near assault rifle in the dictionary

  1. assault
  2. assault and battery
  3. assault at arms
  4. assault course
  5. assault courses
  6. assault rifle
  7. assault rifles
  8. assault weapon
  9. assault weapons
  10. assaultable
  11. assaulted

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: assault rifle (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)-Vealhurl-assault rifle.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-TranqyPoo-assault rifle.wav.

Cite this entry: “assault rifle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/assault_rifle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.