assassinate

verb

as·​sas·​si·​nate ə-ˈsa-sə-ˌnāt 

assassinated; assassinating

transitive verb

1

: to murder (a usually prominent person) by sudden or secret attack often for political reasons

a plot to assassinate the governor

2

: to injure or destroy unexpectedly and treacherously

assassinate a man's character

assassinator

ə-ˈsa-sə-ˌnā-tər 

noun

Synonyms

• bump off
• croak [slang]
• dispatch
• do in
• execute
• get
• ice [slang]
• knock off
• liquidate
• murder
• neutralize
• off [slang]
• put away
• rub out
• slay
• snuff
• take out
• terminate
• whack [slang]

Choose the Right Synonym for assassinate

kill, slay, murder, assassinate, dispatch, execute mean to deprive of life.

kill merely states the fact of death caused by an agency in any manner.

killed in an accident

frost killed the plants

slay is a chiefly literary term implying deliberateness and violence but not necessarily motive.

slew thousands of the Philistines

murder specifically implies stealth and motive and premeditation and therefore full moral responsibility.

convicted of murdering a rival

assassinate applies to deliberate killing openly or secretly often for political motives.

terrorists assassinated the Senator

dispatch stresses quickness and directness in putting to death.

dispatched the sentry with one bullet

execute stresses putting to death as a legal penalty.

executed by lethal gas

Examples of assassinate in a Sentence

They discovered a secret plot to assassinate the governor.

President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963.

Recent Examples on the Web

Political candidates across the country are being assassinated with staggering frequency as the powerful groups seek to clear the field for their preferred picks. —David Shortell, CNN, 12 Apr. 2024

Before their parents abandoned them, their father named them Lincoln and Booth — after the American president and the man who assassinated him. —Imani Perry Janina Edwards Krish Seenivasan Devin Murphy, New York Times, 11 Apr. 2024

Yet in Iran, desperate to stop that country’s secret but active drive to build nuclear weapons, Israeli agents assassinated more than half a dozen scientists and engineers connected with the nuclear program. —Dan Raviv and Yossi Melman, TIME, 9 Apr. 2024

Estonia lost a fifth of its population with more than 75,000 assassinated, imprisoned, or deported by the Soviets. —Anna Mulrine Grobe, The Christian Science Monitor, 2 Apr. 2024

Zahedi would be the most senior Iranian commander known to have been assassinated since the war in Gaza began. —Jane Arraf, NPR, 1 Apr. 2024

Filming on the latter was stopped twice, once when President Kennedy was assassinated and again when Sinatra’s son was kidnapped. —Mike Barnes, The Hollywood Reporter, 31 Mar. 2024

Kennedy was a teenager when his father, known as RFK, was assassinated during his own presidential campaign in 1968. —Jonathan J. Cooper, Fortune, 26 Mar. 2024

Speculation had swirled in recent weeks about who’d get the nod to join Kennedy, the son of the late New York U.S. senator and attorney general who was assassinated in Los Angeles while campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1968. —John Woolfolk, The Mercury News, 26 Mar. 2024

Word History

Etymology

see assassin

First Known Use

1600, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

assassinate

verb

as·​sas·​si·​nate ə-ˈsas-ᵊn-ˌāt 

assassinated; assassinating

: to murder a usually important person by a surprise or secret attack

assassination

ə-ˌsas-ᵊn-ˈā-shən 

noun