onslaught

American  

[on-slawt, awn-] / ˈɒnˌslɔt, ˈɔn- /

noun

• onslaughts
  plural

1. an onset, assault, or attack, especially a vigorous one.

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onslaught British  

/ ˈɒnˌslɔːt /

noun

1. a violent attack

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• onslaughts
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of onslaught

1615–25; < Dutch aanslag a striking, (earlier) attack (equivalent to aan on + slag blow, stroke; akin to slay ), with assimilation to obsolete slaught slaughter

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Explanation

Onslaught is a military term that refers to an attack against an enemy. It's safe to say that no one wants to be caught on the receiving end of an onslaught, because there will be lots of danger, destruction and probably death. One way to help you remember the brutal meaning of onslaught is through the word's English origin, slaught, meaning "slaughter." But onslaught can be used in non-military ways, too. It can mean a barrage of written or spoken communication, like an onslaught of emailed birthday wishes. Taken individually, the birthday wishes are nice but an onslaught is too many, too fast, all at once. Onslaught can also mean a sudden and severe start of trouble. For example, if your office is unprepared for the onslaught of flu season, the entire sales force will be home sick at the same time.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

onslaught onslaughts

"The onslaught of them was unbelievable and I was so not prepared for how I would feel and how horrific it would be," she explained.

From BBC ● Nov. 2, 2026

Exceptionally high tides are set to hit California as early this weekend, sending officials scrambling to prepare for another onslaught along the state’s already battered coast.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 25, 2026

Below, what the past year revealed about the art-crime onslaught.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026

Ahead of the Pryluky attack, the Ukrainian leader had warned this week of warned of intelligence suggesting plans for a major Russian onslaught, and in Kyiv families responded by heading to metro stations for shelter.

From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026

Desperately, she reached for the lip of the next crate again and gripped it, fighting through an onslaught of pain as the container under her dropped away.

From "Six of Crows" by Leigh Bardugo

In October, the South American country unveiled its first drone battalion to counterattack and defend against drone onslaughts.

From Barron's ● Jan. 29, 2026

One drone he pilots can throw up an effective cloak of invisibility against electronic onslaughts, but others he has trained on don’t hold up well in that domain, he said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 13, 2025

Knight, Sciver-Brunt, Jones and Gibson or Kemp are capable of providing brutal onslaughts if they have the comfort of a solid platform behind them.

From BBC ● May 20, 2024

"This funding is critical to stopping those onslaughts, hardening Ukraine’s cyber defences and increasing the country’s ability to detect and disable the malware targeted at them."

From Reuters ● Jun. 18, 2023

The grease on the glass that covered the photograph showed the frequency of these affectionate onslaughts.

From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole

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Related Words

• aggression
• assault
• blitz
• incursion
• invasion
• offensive
• onset

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