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
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
Amin MaaloufExamples 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
Some bowlers are just smiling assassins.
—Paul Newman, New York Times, 19 Nov. 2025
In the action comedy sequel, former assassin Dan (Mark Wahlberg), wife Jessica (Michelle Monaghan) and their sons jet to off to London to spend the holidays with their daughter.
—Brian Truitt, USA Today, 18 Nov. 2025
Frölich recalled that Frick had pleaded in the Reichstag for amnesty to be given to Ernst Werner Techow, who had been involved in Rathenau’s murder, and had demanded impunity for the Erzberger assassins, Schulz and Tillessen.
—Literary Hub, 17 Nov. 2025
But this particular scenario, in which an outsider queen turns workers into her proxy assassins, has never been described in detail before, researchers reported Monday in the journal Current Biology.
—CNN Money, 17 Nov. 2025
See All Example Sentences for assassin
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Paul Newman, New York Times, 19 Nov. 2025
In the action comedy sequel, former assassin Dan (Mark Wahlberg), wife Jessica (Michelle Monaghan) and their sons jet to off to London to spend the holidays with their daughter.
—Brian Truitt, USA Today, 18 Nov. 2025
Frölich recalled that Frick had pleaded in the Reichstag for amnesty to be given to Ernst Werner Techow, who had been involved in Rathenau’s murder, and had demanded impunity for the Erzberger assassins, Schulz and Tillessen.
—Literary Hub, 17 Nov. 2025
But this particular scenario, in which an outsider queen turns workers into her proxy assassins, has never been described in detail before, researchers reported Monday in the journal Current Biology.
—CNN Money, 17 Nov. 2025
See All Example Sentences for assassin
Cite this Entry
“Assassin.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/assassin. Accessed 23 Nov. 2025.
Copy CitationKids 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
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