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:
The Washington Hilton, where John Hinckley Jr attempted to assassinate then-President Ronald Reagan 45 years ago, said it followed security instructions from the Secret Service.
From BBC ● Apr. 27, 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
Among those released so far are Spanish-Venezuelan rights activist Rocio San Miguel, arrested in 2024 over her purported role in an alleged plot to assassinate Maduro.
From Barron's ● Jan. 17, 2026
For decades, Cuban intelligence agents were Cold War stars, dismantling plots to assassinate Fidel Castro, recruiting senior U.S. government officials and protecting heads of state from Angola to Panama.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 6, 2026
My father made maps for the men who attempted to assassinate Hitler.
From "Salt to the Sea" by Ruta Sepetys
It assassinates the peace of families, it cuts away honor from the family name, it lets out the vital spark of life, and is followed by inconsolable death.
From Fifteen Years in Hell by Luther Benson
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 Sir Walter Scott
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 Robert Green Ingersoll
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
I think of you always; Jack also; I have told him so much, he assassinates himself with desire to see you all.
From Fernley House by Etheldred B. (Etheldred Breeze) Barry
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
The widow of assassinated right-wing activist Charlie Kirk came face-to-face Monday with the man alleged to have killed him, during a court hearing in the western United States.
From Barron's ● Jul. 6, 2026
Marx was largely unknown outside of Colorado’s evangelical community before Charlie Kirk was assassinated last September.
From Slate ● Jun. 29, 2026
Seyffardt was a Dutch general who commanded a Waffen-SS unit of volunteers on the eastern front before he was assassinated by resistance fighters in 1943.
From BBC ● May 11, 2026
On June 28, 1914, the day that Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, the major European powers all had large standing armies.
From "The War to End All Wars: World War I" by Russell Freedman
The ANC reflected on the pain caused by Hani's assassination and said the release was a reminder of "the bullet that pierced through our hearts, assassinating a father and comrade".
From BBC ● Dec. 6, 2024
“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.
