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

Soon, Cooper, Jordan and their reluctant new associates, Byron’s assassins Antonio (Anthony Ramos) and Jeremy (Jeremy Pope), find themselves in the crosshairs of a brewing war within the Forst family. —Hunter Ingram, Variety, 5 Mar. 2026

Minnesota just had two lawmakers and their spouses shot by a political assassin. —Drake Bentley, jsonline.com, 3 Mar. 2026

In 2022, a would-be assassin was arrested for trying to kill Justice Kavanaugh at his home. —Heather Abbott, CBS News, 2 Mar. 2026

Statham stars as a retired assassin living off the coast of Scotland who has to get back to work while trying to stop the agency that used to pay him and protecting a young girl named Jessie (Bodhi Rae Breathnach). —Brian Tallerico, Vulture, 28 Feb. 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