terrorist
noun · adjective
Simple meaning
A person, group, or organization that uses violent action, or the threat of violent action.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
tehreristSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈtɛɹɚɪst
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 person, group, or organization that uses violent action, or the threat of violent action, to further political goals.
adjective
Of or relating to terrorism.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A person, group, or organization that uses violent action, or the threat of violent action, to further political goals.
In this sense, terrorist is a very strong, expressive word and reaches for fear at its strongest, so mild worry is well below it.
- Emotional tone
- Strongly negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Very strong
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Strongly negative / painful
- Usage feel
- Everyday but emotionally strong
Where it naturally appears
- Government/politics
- Personal/emotional discussion
- Literature/storytelling
Usage note
Terrorist 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.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Radical
Other combinations
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
The calculated use of violence (or the threat of violence) against civilians in order to attain goals that are political or religious or ideological in nature.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
The calculated use of violence (or the threat of violence) against civilians in order to attain goals that are political or religious or ideological in nature.
A surprise attack involving the deliberate use of violence against civilians in the hope of attaining political or religious aims.
A cell of terrorists (usually 3 to 5 members).
A political movement that uses terror as a weapon to achieve its goals.
A political movement that uses terror as a weapon to achieve its goals.
A programmer who breaks into computer systems in order to steal or change or destroy information as a form of cyber-terrorism.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
An agency that helps the Director of Central Intelligence coordinate counterterrorist efforts in order to preempt and disrupt and defeat terrorist activities at the earliest possible stage.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
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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.