assassinate
Americanverb (used with object)
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assassinates,
present (3rd person singular)
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assassinated,
past participle, past
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assassinating
present participle
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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:
One North Korean commando, captured during a daring 1968 mission to assassinate the South Korean president in Seoul, recalls the confusion he felt when first encountering Christianity.
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
He was convinced that if anyone tried to assassinate him, these two stocky morons would be powerless to prevent it, but he trusted that their presence would at least scare off spontaneous detraaors.
From "The House of the Spirits: A Novel" by Isabel Allende
It may seem a trifle scratchy fer the moment, but it assassinates the blood-p'ison.
From The Conquest of Canaan by Booth Tarkington
"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 Charles Neville Buck
Taking the poker from Mr. Smith's nerveless grasp, with three vicious thrusts he assassinates the already moribund fire.
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 158, 1920-03-31 by Various
With his pen, as Cellini with his dagger, he assassinates; his cynicism serves him for a coat of armour.
From Renaissance in Italy Volume 3 The Fine Arts by John Addington Symonds
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 Robert Green Ingersoll
For a time, Trump also had his name placed on the walls of the Kennedy Center, the culture and arts institute named after assassinated president John F Kennedy.
From Barron's ● Sep. 3, 2026
Kennedy, who was born after her father was assassinated, credits not only him but her whole family with inspiring her.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026
After a week of mass funeral processions, rallies and mourning ceremonies in Iran, the assassinated former supreme leader has been buried.
From BBC ● Jul. 9, 2026
Marx was largely unknown outside of Colorado’s evangelical community before Charlie Kirk was assassinated last September.
From Slate ● Jun. 29, 2026
Donny—supposedly assassinated by then—was peeking, and shouted, “Hey, what you doing, Pee-Pee?”
From "The Last Last-Day-of-Summer" by Lamar Giles
The man accused of assassinating former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe has apologised to the ex-leader's family for the first time.
From BBC ● Dec. 4, 2025
“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.
