assailant
Americannoun
-
assailants
plural
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of assailant
From the Middle French word assaillant, dating back to 1525–35. See assail, -ant
Explanation
A wife who sends a vase sailing at her husband's head might be considered an assailant, or attacker. Or, they might be playing a game of dodgeball with the furniture. Assailant comes from the Latin ad- meaning "at" and salire meaning "to leap." Leap at someone and you're an assailant — someone who attacks. You'll usually hear this word when lawyers or police are talking about attacks, because most people use its synonym attacker in casual conversation. Have you ever been attacked by ants, looking down to see your foot covered in them? Think of the word ant when you spell the word assailant to remember its ending.
Vocabulary lists containing assailant
Fever 1793
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Franklin Roosevelt, "Four Freedoms" (1941)
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This Week in Words : December 23 - 29, 2017
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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:
The assailant still appears agitated, and the teacher, an older man, continues to stand between the two and shouts “stop” and “calm down” at the agitated student.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2026
Nellie Strandberg, a 16-year-old Brinell student, said she was on her way to the school's library when the assailant entered the institution.
From Barron's ● Aug. 22, 2026
Marx claims to be the world’s fastest gun disarmer, a skill that seems to require an assailant to stick a handgun directly in your face rather than shoot you from a few feet away.
From Slate ● Jun. 29, 2026
The alleged assailant, Essa Suleiman, a 45-year-old Somali-born British national, was formally charged Friday with attempted murder.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 2026
The State's primary evidence against Mr. Hinton involved a third crime where a witness identified him as the assailant.
From "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson
Unlike most of the alleged assailants, Doe left college after what Giuffra has described as a “horrifying” semester in which she had to attend classes “where she saw these guys on a fairly regular basis.”
From Salon ● Oct. 2, 2026
Meanwhile, Rita told the sheriff’s deputies that she thought she could identify one of the assailants.
From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026
He accused the presidents of France, Benin and Ivory Coast -- Emmanuel Macron, Patrice Talon and Alassane Ouattara -- of sponsoring the assailants.
From Barron's ● Jan. 30, 2026
A Texas State University team, analyzing 597 attacks between 2000 and 2024, found that around 45% of assailants are either shot or subdued by either civilians or police.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 17, 2025
Too late, Torak realized that Wolf had not been growling at the auroch -but at these silent assailants.
From "Wolf Brother" by Michelle Paver
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
