assassin
noun
Simple meaning
A murderer who kills by a surprise attack and often is hired to do the deed.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
uhsasuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
əˈsæsən
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A murderer (especially one who kills a prominent political figure) who kills by a surprise attack and often is hired to do the deed
“His assassins were hunted down like animals.”
Someone who intentionally kills a person, especially a professional who kills a public or political figure.
Any ruthless killer.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A murderer (especially one who kills a prominent political figure) who kills by a surprise attack and often is hired to do the deed
Used this way, assassin is a common word with a faintly unfavourable edge. It turns up most in government or politics contexts.
“His assassins were hunted down like animals.”
- Emotional tone
- Slightly negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- Critical or judgemental
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Government/politics
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use assassin
- “His assassins were hunted down like animals.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
An attack intended to ruin someone's reputation.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A true bug: long-legged predacious bug living mostly on other insects.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
- cianoun
- assassinationnoun
- murdernoun
- ninjanoun
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: murderer (especially one who kills a prominent political figure) who kills by a surprise attack and often is hired to do the deed
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.