terrorist
/ˈtɛɹəɹɪst/
terrorist noun: a person, group, or organization that uses violent action, or the threat of violent action, to further political goals. Also the deliberate misspelling of tourist.
Noun
terrorist (plural terrorists)
- A person, group, or organization that uses violent action, or the threat of violent action, to further political goals.
- Hooooly shit! That is terrible, because (1), he is not a terrorist, and (2), I do hope we have a better strategy for dealing with terrorists than flagging their credit reports and denying them their dream apartments! Hey, not in America! Not in America!2016 April 10, “Credit Reports”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 3, episode 8, John Oliver (actor), via HBO
- An agent or partisan of the revolutionary tribunal during the Reign of Terror in France.
Adjective
terrorist (not comparable)
- Of or relating to terrorism.
- States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world.2002 January 29, George Walker Bush, "2002 State of the Union Address".
- This controversy is quite similar to the red-tagging brouhaha exploded against me by Gabriela and its ilk in the CPP-NPA-NDF legal front. In a Facebook post, I had warned Liza Soberano of the deceptive tactics of the group in recruiting showbiz icons into the communist terrorist insurgency. I was...2021, Antonio Parlade Jr., “To catch a commie and friends by their mouths”, in The Manila Times
Also used as
terrorist is also the deliberate misspelling of tourist.
terrorist meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
terrorist in Hindi
- person who uses terror as a weapon in a political struggle
- आतंकवादी ātaṅkvādī, दहशतनाक dahśatnāk
terrorist in Tamil
- person who uses terror as a weapon in a political struggle
- தீவிரவாதி tīviravāti, பயங்கரவாதி payaṅkaravāti
terrorist in Marathi
- person who uses terror as a weapon in a political struggle
- दहशतवादी dahśatvādī
terrorist in Urdu
- person who uses terror as a weapon in a political struggle
- دَہْشَت گَرْد dahśat gard, دَہْشَت پَسَنْد dahśat pasand, آتَنْکوادی ātankvādī, تَخْوِیف پَسَنْد taxvīf pasand
More languagesFewer languages
- terrorist in Bengali
- সন্ত্রাসবাদী śontrasbadi
- terrorist in Telugu
- తీవ్రవాద tīvravāda
- terrorist in Malayalam
- ഭീകരൻ bhīkaraṉ
- terrorist in Kannada
- ಭಯೋತ್ಪಾದಕ bhayōtpādaka
- terrorist in Punjabi
- ਅੱਤਵਾਦੀ attavādī
- terrorist in Gujarati
- આતંકી ātaṅkī
- terrorist in Sinhala
- ත්රස්තවාදී trastawādī
- terrorist in Pashto
- ترهګر trahgar, تروريست terorist
- terrorist in Tagalog
- terorista
- terrorist in Arabic
- إِرْهَابِيّ ʔirhābiyy, إِرْهَابِيَّة ʔirhābiyya
- terrorist in Malay
- pengganas
- terrorist in Indonesian
- teroris, penggentar
- terrorist in Persian
- تِروریسْت terorist, تروریست
- terrorist in Thai
- ผู้ก่อการร้าย pûu-gɔ̀ɔ-gaan-ráai
- terrorist in Vietnamese
- người khủng bố, tên khủng bố, kẻ khủng bố, khủng bố
- terrorist in Myanmar
- အကြမ်းဖက်သမား a.kram:hpaksa.ma:
Examples of terrorist in a sentence
- They hoped to starve the terrorists of the oxygen of publicity.
- Jumping on the train from the bridge to catch the terrorist was a highly risky operation.
- He got clearance to travel to America, even though he had previous links to terrorists.
Forms of terrorist
| plural | terrorists |
|---|
Origin of terrorist
From terror + -ist. In the historical sense, after French terroriste. First used in 1794 in the Courier and Evening Gazette.
Words formed from terrorist
Phrases with terrorist
Questions about terrorist
- What does terrorist mean?
- Terrorist means a person, group, or organization that uses violent action, or the threat of violent action, to further political goals.
- What is terrorist in Hindi?
- Terrorist in Hindi is आतंकवादी (ātaṅkvādī), दहशतनाक (dahśatnāk). See Terrorist meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is terrorist?
- Terrorist can be a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce terrorist?
- Terrorist is pronounced /ˈtɛɹəɹɪst/.
- What is the plural of terrorist?
- The plural of terrorist is terrorists.
Words near terrorist in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: terrorist (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-terrorist.wav.
Cite this entry: “terrorist.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/terrorist. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.