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

The explosion killed him and fourteen others in his vicinity, as well as the assassin, and injured another forty-three. — Sonia Gandhi, Vanity Fair, 10 Nov. 2026

Martin McDonagh’s latest comedy drama casts Malkovich as Chris Carlisle, a dying CIA assassin who in 1973 is visiting Chile’s Easter Island with a protégé, played by Sam Rockwell, who just may kill his mentor before their getaway is over. — The Week Us, TheWeek, 10 Nov. 2026

The film has the bones of a professional assassin revenge story, but the family and religious elements are quite different in tone. — Scott Roxborough, HollywoodReporter, 10 Nov. 2026

Goold will also direct Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman’s Tony Award-winning musical Assassins. — Zac Ntim, Deadline, 10 Nov. 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