terrorist

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noun

ter·​ror·​ist ˈter-ər-ist 

plural terrorists

: an advocate or practitioner of terrorism as a means of coercion

Opposition still runs high to the idea of releasing or bringing into U.S. prisons dozens of men widely considered dangerous terrorists even if many are not.

Less than three weeks before the Winter Olympics are set to begin in the Russian city of Sochi, police there have begun hunting for suspected terrorists allegedly plotting attacks.

—Time

terrorist

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adjective

: or, relating to, or characteristic of terrorists or terrorism : practicing or involving violent acts of terror

a terrorist organization

The consequences of the U.S. response to the terrorist attacks of September 2001 will ramify for decades.

—Joe Klein

There is no margin for error when a real terrorist threat is present and the safety of the public, and the first responders, is in jeopardy.

—Gary J. Laughlin

Examples of terrorist in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

The man who crashed an explosive-laden truck into a Michigan synagogue where scores of children were at daycare acted as an operative of Hezbollah, the foreign terrorist organization based in Lebanon, federal officials said March 30. —Michael Loria, USA Today, 31 Mar. 2026

In a report on CNN’s website, Diamond wrote that the soldiers detained the crew, along with West Bank Palestinians, for two hours while echoing settler ideology, saying all the West Bank belongs to Israel and calling Palestinians terrorists. —Julia Frankel, Los Angeles Times, 30 Mar. 2026

Adjective

Last year, Tim Fehlbaum’s September 5, the real-life thriller based on the terrorist attacks at the 1972 Munich Olympics that stars Peter Sarsgaard, John Magaro and Leonie Benesch, swept the German honors. —Georg Szalai, HollywoodReporter, 31 Mar. 2026

Yet Ali’s act does not only evoke terrorist incidents such as the Charlie Hebdo attack, perpetrated by Muslim extremists, just a few months prior to The Red Chador. —H.m.a. Leow, JSTOR Daily, 31 Mar. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

Noun

1794, in the meaning defined above

Adjective

1795, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing terrorist

• anti-terrorist