assassinate
Americanverb (used with object)
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to kill suddenly or secretively, especially a prominent person; murder premeditatedly and treacherously.
- Synonyms:
- slay
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to destroy or harm treacherously and viciously.
to assassinate a person's character.
verb
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to murder (a person, esp a public or political figure), usually by a surprise attack
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to ruin or harm (a person's reputation, etc) by slander
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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assassinatesimple
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assassinatessimple
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have assassinatedperfect
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has assassinatedperfect
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am assassinatingprogressive
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are assassinatingprogressive
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is assassinatingprogressive
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have been assassinatingperfect progressive
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has been assassinatingperfect progressive
Past
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assassinatedsimple
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had assassinatedperfect
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was assassinatingprogressive
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were assassinatingprogressive
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had been assassinatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of assassinate
Explanation
To assassinate someone means to target and deliberately kill that person. The word assassinate is almost always used to describe the killing of a famous person. When a political leader or very well-known person is murdered, the killer is said to assassinate the victim. A killer might assassinate someone for political or ideological reasons, to gain fame for the act, or possibly for payment by someone else. You can assassinate figuratively, as well, by damaging a person's good name: "If you print that story, it will assassinate my reputation." The Arabic root of assassin is hashishiyyin, "hashish users."
Vocabulary lists containing assassinate
"The Civil Rights Movement"
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English Words Derived from Arabic
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on March 4 that the U.S. had killed the head of an Iranian unit behind an alleged plot to assassinate President Trump.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 11, 2026
The Church Committee recommended, and Congress subsequently enacted, dozens of sweeping reforms to foreign intelligence collection activities, as well as restraints on future efforts by the U.S. government to assassinate people.
From Salon ● Mar. 13, 2026
A man was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years in prison at a US court for his involvement in a plot to assassinate Masih Alinejad, an Iranian-American journalist highly critical of Tehran.
From Barron's ● Jan. 28, 2026
The HSCA’s link analysis about the Grapevine Tavern and its conclusion that the Ray family was deeply involved in the plan to assassinate King were never pursued by the Department of Justice.
From Slate ● Dec. 1, 2025
My father made maps for the men who attempted to assassinate Hitler.
From "Salt to the Sea" by Ruta Sepetys
Fear is the dungeon of the mind, and superstition is a dagger with which hypocrisy assassinates the soul.
From The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 1 (of 12) Dresden Edition?Lectures by Ingersoll, Robert Green
The accident was wondrous strange: Did you neither know your assassinates, nor your deliverer?
From The works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 05 by Scott, Walter, Sir
Ladies and Gentlemen: Fear is the dungeon of the mind, and superstition is a dagger with which hypocrisy assassinates the soul.
From Lectures of Col. R. G. Ingersoll, Volume I Including His Answers to the Clergy, His Oration at His Brother's Grave, Etc., Etc. by Ingersoll, Robert Green
Error endlessly assassinates itself in a futile effort to escape its immortality.
From Fantazius Mallare A Mysterious Oath by Smith, Wallace
"Hatred of lawlessness and the sort of meanness that assassinates and quarrels," was the quiet and surprising response.
From The Code of the Mountains by Buck, Charles Neville
Marx was largely unknown outside of Colorado’s evangelical community before Charlie Kirk was assassinated last September.
From Slate ● Jun. 29, 2026
Over the past year-and-a-half, Muscovites have woken to news that army generals in Moscow have been assassinated, and drones have been targeting the capital.
From BBC ● Jun. 20, 2026
The ritual is a tribute to his country’s founding prime minister, Patrice Lumumba, who was assassinated in a Belgian-led plot in 1961.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 15, 2026
Sarina Hosseiny said she had never heard of Qassem Soleimani, an Iranian general assassinated by the U.S. in 2020.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 1, 2026
During the course of the evening, Lincoln talked in detail about the night his father had been assassinated.
From "Ambushed!" by Gail Jarrow
"The play in no way advocates assassinating our political leaders, or anyone," the writer stresses.
From BBC ● May 8, 2026
“Send it to any other powerful figure with a platform and an audience who is considering whether they will take the chance to seek profit and fame by assassinating the moral character of ordinary people.”
From New York Times ● Dec. 14, 2023
A California review board on Wednesday denied parole to Sirhan Sirhan, the Palestinian refugee serving a life sentence for assassinating U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy in 1968.
From Reuters ● Mar. 2, 2023
One of the pieces of information revealed was a psychological evaluation of Lee Harvey Oswald, who was arrested for assassinating John F. Kennedy.
From Salon ● Dec. 18, 2022
Their mission was to strike a blow against Austria and the Hapsburg monarchy by assassinating Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
From "The War to End All Wars: World War I" by Russell Freedman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
