Assassin Meaning
/əˈsæsɪn/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounSomeone who intentionally kills a person, especially a professional who kills a public or political figure.
nounAny ruthless killer.
Sentence Examples
Martin Luther King, Jr., a man of peace, was killed by an assassin's bullet.
The assassin smothered his victim with a pillow.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
None
CEFR Practice Quiz
The secret agent discovered the ____ planning to kill the president.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The secret agent was assigned to stop the dangerous ____ from afar.
Word Origin & History
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.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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."
— 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 233:
"What has violence ever accomplished? What has it ever created? No martyr's cause can ever be stilled by an assassin’s bullet."
— 1968, Robert F. Kennedy, On the Mindless Menace of Violence:
"Even without hovering drones, a lurking assassin, a thumping score and a denouement, the real-life story of Edward Snowden, a rogue spy on the run, could be straight out of the cinema. But, as with Hollywood, the subplots and exotic locations may distract from the real message: America’s discomfort and its foes’ glee."
— 2013 June 29, “Travels and travails”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, archived from the original on 12 Mar 2023, page 55:
"The Assassines, a nation depending of Phœnicia, are esteemed among the Mahometists of a soveraigne devotion and puritie of maners; they hold, that the readiest and shortest way to gaine Paradise, is to kill some one of a contrary religion[…]."
— 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 29, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The secret agent discovered the ____ planning to kill the president.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The secret agent was assigned to stop the dangerous ____ from afar.