assailant

noun

as·​sail·​ant ə-ˈsā-lənt 

plural assailants

: a person who attacks someone violently

an assault by an unknown assailant

She could identify the assailant and his two accomplices, and she wanted to press charges.

—Jennifer Baumgardner

Detectives speculated that she may have been punched on the chin, perhaps knocked unconscious by her assailant.

—Joseph Wambaugh

Synonyms of assailant

• attacker
• assaulter

Examples of assailant in a Sentence

the darkness prevented me from getting a good look at my assailant

Recent Examples on the Web

In July, a group of assailants opened fire on an ICE facility in Alvarado, Texas. —Miranda Jeyaretnam, Time, 9 Jan. 2026

Surveillance footage recovered from the scene showed the Uber driver got into a fender bender with the assailant shortly before the confrontation. —Colin Mixson, New York Daily News, 8 Jan. 2026

After the shooting, the assailant left the scene prior to police arriving. —Kansas City Star, 8 Jan. 2026

The culminating episode, as the mob smashes and ransacks a hospital and terrorizes its patients, ultimately reveals a frail elderly man, standing naked and alone in an empty bathtub as the assailants approach. —John Penner, Los Angeles Times, 8 Jan. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1523, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for assailant

• covalent
• divalent
• inhalant
• hexavalent
• monovalent
• multivalent
• pentavalent
• polyvalent
• tetravalent
• univalent

Legal Definition

assailant

noun

as·​sail·​ant ə-ˈsā-lənt 

: a person who commits criminal assault