as in attackers
one who violently sets upon another
the darkness prevented me from getting a good look at my assailant
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Recent Examples of assailants
The action sequences can get a bit weird, where at one point, the house just got blasted with hundreds of rounds from assault rifles, and the follow-up response to that is members of the team going outside and walking down an empty street, entirely exposed to any assailants.
—
Paul Tassi, Forbes.com, 17 Jan. 2026
They’re attacked by some of Andrei’s assailants, and Sasha gets stabbed.
—Barry Levitt, Time, 16 Jan. 2026
The culminating episode, as the mob smashes and ransacks a hospital and terrorizes its patients, ultimately reveals a frail elderly man, standing naked and alone in an empty bathtub as the assailants approach.
—John Penner, Los Angeles Times, 8 Jan. 2026
During the attack, the assailants beat the son's head against the pavement.
—Rachel Wolf, FOXNews.com, 26 Dec. 2025
At least one of the assailants also held a gun to the head of another person in the store.
—Jakob Rodgers, Mercury News, 22 Dec. 2025
At least nine people were killed early Sunday as a group of assailants opened fire with pistols and an assault rifle at a South African tavern, local police officials said.
—Liezl Thom, ABC News, 21 Dec. 2025
There was criticism that the first police responders last week were armed only with Glock pistols, which did not have the lethal range of the assailants’ shotguns and rifles.
—CNN Money, 21 Dec. 2025
There was criticism that the first police responders last week were armed only with Glock pistols, which did not have the lethal range of the assailants' shotguns and rifles.
—CBS News, 21 Dec. 2025
Paul Tassi, Forbes.com, 17 Jan. 2026
They’re attacked by some of Andrei’s assailants, and Sasha gets stabbed.
—Barry Levitt, Time, 16 Jan. 2026
The culminating episode, as the mob smashes and ransacks a hospital and terrorizes its patients, ultimately reveals a frail elderly man, standing naked and alone in an empty bathtub as the assailants approach.
—John Penner, Los Angeles Times, 8 Jan. 2026
During the attack, the assailants beat the son's head against the pavement.
—Rachel Wolf, FOXNews.com, 26 Dec. 2025
At least one of the assailants also held a gun to the head of another person in the store.
—Jakob Rodgers, Mercury News, 22 Dec. 2025
At least nine people were killed early Sunday as a group of assailants opened fire with pistols and an assault rifle at a South African tavern, local police officials said.
—Liezl Thom, ABC News, 21 Dec. 2025
There was criticism that the first police responders last week were armed only with Glock pistols, which did not have the lethal range of the assailants’ shotguns and rifles.
—CNN Money, 21 Dec. 2025
There was criticism that the first police responders last week were armed only with Glock pistols, which did not have the lethal range of the assailants' shotguns and rifles.
—CBS News, 21 Dec. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for assailants
attackers
Noun
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As the man was allegedly being assaulted by one of the attackers, the other ran upstairs toward the man’s wife, police said.—
Justin Muszynski,
Hartford Courant,
14 Jan. 2026
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Federal agencies are also issuing advisories about the group's social engineering techniques, noting how attackers impersonate help desks, abuse multi-factor authentication and harvest credentials to access corporate networks.—
Kurt Knutsson,
FOXNews.com,
13 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Assailants.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/assailants. Accessed 21 Jan. 2026.
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