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

And why was the would-be assassin’s body cremated so quickly without an autopsy? —Voice Of The People, New York Daily News, 25 Apr. 2026

Caine’s movie comes after Ana de Armas starred in last year’s Ballerina, the first non-Wick standalone title in the franchise, about a young Ruska Roma assassin seeking vengeance for her father. —Glenn Garner, Deadline, 25 Apr. 2026

Then there’s the issue of the fake assassin himself. —Harmeet Kaur, CNN Money, 23 Apr. 2026

Picture of the water gun Williams had while playing senior assassin. —Marissa Sulek, CBS News, 14 Apr. 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

• unfasten
• 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