assassin

CEFRC1

/əˈsæsɪn/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A person who murders an important person, often for political reasons.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    A member of the Nizari Ismaili Muslim community of the Alamut Period.

Examples

  • Martin Luther King, Jr., a man of peace, was killed by an assassin's bullet.

  • The assassin smothered his victim with a pillow.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
4

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. Any ruthless killer.

  2. Someone who intentionally kills a person, especially a professional who kills a public or political figure.

  3. An associated prime of a module.

More examples

In context

  • What has violence ever accomplished? What has it ever created? No martyr's cause can ever be stilled by an assassin’s bullet.

  • The hand that held the bond of so many jarring interests lay powerless beneath the pall. The perils of war had been about him, and the midnight assassin had watched his path; yet he died quietly in his bed.

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The secret agent discovered the blank planning to kill the president.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

From either French assassin or Italian assassino, from Arabic أَسَاسِيِّين (ʔasāsiyyīn, “people who are faithful to the foundation [of the faith]”) and the folkloric etymology Arabic حَشَّاشِين (ḥaššāšīn, “hashish users; low-lives”). The mathematical sense was introduced by Bourbaki, playing on the notation operatorname Ass(M) and the fact that an associated prime is the annihilator of an element, and so is said to kill that element.