plural assassins
1
: a person who commits murder
especially
: one who murders a politically prominent person either for money or from fanatical adherence to a cause
… the location of the victim's gunshot wounds … might point to a professional assassin. —
Wendy Fry
Wendy Fry 2
Assassin plural Assassins, history
: a person belonging to a Shia Muslim sect during the time of the Crusades whose members were notorious for murdering prominent enemies
For a third of a century, no enemy of the Assassins had ever managed to elude them.—Amin Maalouf
Amin MaaloufExamples of assassin in a Sentence
John Wilkes Booth was the assassin of Abraham Lincoln.
shot down by an unknown assassin
Recent Examples on the Web
The titular story is about an assassin who is having an extremely bureaucratic exchange with a recruit, explaining to him how best to arrange a tableau of dead bodies for maximum aesthetic effect.
—The New Yorker, New Yorker, 17 Dec. 2025
This is one of the worst of them, with Alec Baldwin bravely fighting to bring Medgar Evers’s assassin to justice while Whoopi Goldberg cheers him on and cries.
—Will Leitch, Vulture, 16 Dec. 2025
When the assassin first meets with Weaver’s character at a restaurant, the circular lighting fixtures, in conjunction with how Hirsch Whitaker frames them, suggests angelic halos floating above the criminals’ heads — fitting (if a bit obvious) in the story of a bad guy trying to do the right thing.
—Carlos Aguilar, Variety, 11 Dec. 2025
The situation gets more complex with the addition of a bunch of oddball assassins trying to murder the neighbor, plus other mysterious and shady types like his former associate Laverne (Weaver).
—Brian Truitt, USA Today, 11 Dec. 2025
See All Example Sentences for assassin
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The New Yorker, New Yorker, 17 Dec. 2025
This is one of the worst of them, with Alec Baldwin bravely fighting to bring Medgar Evers’s assassin to justice while Whoopi Goldberg cheers him on and cries.
—Will Leitch, Vulture, 16 Dec. 2025
When the assassin first meets with Weaver’s character at a restaurant, the circular lighting fixtures, in conjunction with how Hirsch Whitaker frames them, suggests angelic halos floating above the criminals’ heads — fitting (if a bit obvious) in the story of a bad guy trying to do the right thing.
—Carlos Aguilar, Variety, 11 Dec. 2025
The situation gets more complex with the addition of a bunch of oddball assassins trying to murder the neighbor, plus other mysterious and shady types like his former associate Laverne (Weaver).
—Brian Truitt, USA Today, 11 Dec. 2025
See All Example Sentences for assassin
Cite this Entry
“Assassin.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/assassin. Accessed 22 Dec. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
assassin
noun
as·sas·sin
ə-ˈsas-ən 
: a person who kills another person
especially
: one who murders a politically important person either for pay or from loyalty to a cause
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