attack
noun · verb · adjective
Simple meaning
An try to cause damage, injury to, or death of an opponent or enemy.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
uhtakSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
əˈtæk
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
An attempt to cause damage, injury to, or death of an opponent or enemy.
An attempt to detract from the worth or credibility of, a person, position, idea, object, or thing, by physical, verbal, emotional, or other assault.
gaming
Any of several specific maneuvers, skills, or special abilities that a character can use to inflict damage against opponents.
An active episode of a chronic or recurrent disease.
A time in which one attacks; the offence of a battle.
informalby extension
The beginning of active operations on anything.
verb
transitive
To aggressively challenge a person, idea, etc., with words (particularly in newspaper headlines, because it typesets into less space than "criticize" or similar).
Begin to injure
“The cancer cells are attacking his liver.”
transitive
To begin to affect; to act upon injuriously or destructively; to begin to decompose or waste.
transitive
To deal with something in a direct way; to set to work upon.
transitive
To apply violent force to someone or something.
adjective
Designed or kept for the purpose of confrontation.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Varies by meaning
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An attempt to cause damage, injury to, or death of an opponent or enemy.
Used this way, attack is a reasonably familiar word carrying real weight of difficulty or hurt. It carries more force than its gentler alternatives. It turns up most in personal or emotional discussion and literature or storytelling contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Strongly negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Strong
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Everyday but emotionally strong
Where it naturally appears
- Personal/emotional discussion
- Literature/storytelling
Usage note
Attack is emotionally heavy: it suggests deep or lasting feeling, not a passing mood, so it can overstate a small reaction.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use attack
- “The editors of the left-leaning paper attacked the new House Speaker.”verb
- “He published an unexpected attack on my work.”noun
- “Attacks on women increased last year.”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.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Someone who attacks.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A high-speed military or naval airplane designed to destroy enemy aircraft in the air.
A large warship that carries planes and has a long flat deck for takeoffs and landings.
A watchdog trained to attack on command.
A military submarine designed and armed to attack enemy shipping.
Respiratory disorder characterized by wheezing.
A mass attack of troops without concern for casualties.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: attempt to cause damage or injury to
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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.