assassin

noun

as·​sas·​sin ə-ˈsa-sᵊn 

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

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

Synonyms of assassin

• murderer
• killer

Examples 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

Swedish investigators said the shooter was no professional assassin – but another teenage boy who had been recruited to kill. —ABC News, 12 June 2026

The queen would go on to become the longest-serving British monarch of all time—surpassing 70 years on the throne before her death in 2022—while Jackie’s time as first lady was cut short by an assassin’s bullet on November 22, 1963, not yet three years into her tenure. —Rachel Burchfield, InStyle, 11 June 2026

Released in the summer of 1996 after winning the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, the unconventional biopic about feminist writer and would-be Andy Warhol assassin Valerie Solanas announced Harron as a major new director and gave star Lili Taylor the best part of her career. —Jim Hemphill, IndieWire, 10 June 2026

Cat was first introduced as a member of an assassin network the BAU was tracking, but later became one of Reid’s most notable enemies, going so far as to frame him for murder in season 12. —Rachel Labonte, Entertainment Weekly, 9 June 2026

Word History

Etymology

Medieval Latin assassinus, from Arabic ḥashshāshīn, plural of ḥashshāsh worthless person, literally, hashish user, from hashīsh hashish

First Known Use

circa 1520, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Phrases Containing assassin

• assassin bug

Rhymes for assassin

• bason
• casson
• fasten
• cytochalasin
• diapason

Kids 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