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 administration deemed her a domestic terrorist. —Dev Patnaik, Forbes.com, 27 Jan. 2026

Noem accused Pretti of being a domestic terrorist and brandishing a weapon before he was shot, a claim disputed by bystander footage of the incident. —David Sivak, The Washington Examiner, 26 Jan. 2026

Adjective

In 2011, Obama ordered the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, an American citizen living in Yemen who was associated with the terrorist group Al-Qaeda. —Mikayla Bunnell, Hartford Courant, 3 Feb. 2026

Choreographed to perfection, yet not in a way that felt forced in the slightest, Bono and company distilled their brilliant Elevation Tour into a spellbinding three-song set that found the band performing while names of terrorist victims were shown on the big screen. —Jim Harrington, Mercury News, 1 Feb. 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