terrorist
Americannoun
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terrorists
plural
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a person, usually a member of a group, who uses or advocates terrorism.
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a person who terrorizes or frightens others.
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(formerly) a member of a political group in Russia aiming at the demoralization of the government by terror.
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an agent or partisan of the revolutionary tribunal during the Reign of Terror in France.
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of terrorist
First recorded in 1785–95; terror + -ist; compare French terroriste
Explanation
Someone who uses violence, mayhem, and destruction — or the threat of those things — to coerce people or countries into taking a certain action is a terrorist. A terrorist may be motivated by religious fervor, politics, or just plain old-fashioned greed. Terrorist has at its root the word "terror," which comes from the Latin word terrorem, meaning great fear. Great fear is exactly what terrorists hope to create so they can manipulate the situation to their benefit. The label terrorist is a subjective one. To the British, the American colonists who destroyed shiploads of tea in Boston Harbor in 1773 were terrorists. To colonists, they were patriots and heroes.
Vocabulary lists containing terrorist
President Obama's Speech to the Nation about Terrorism
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American Naturalization Test, List 3
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Fear and Loathing in Cleveland: Trump's RNC Acceptance Speech
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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:
Three new specials commemorate the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 22, 2026
Hekmat Omar Ali Hakim appeared before Westminster Magistrates' Court and pleaded not guilty to failing to disclose information regarding terrorist activity.
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026
The United States for years refused contact with Hamas, which it classifies as a terrorist organisation and which led the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the Gaza war.
From Barron's ● Aug. 16, 2026
In 2025, the Onion ran a spoof headline imagining the State Department designating the league a terrorist organization.
From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2026
The likelihood of any given person being killed in a terrorist attack is far smaller than the likelihood that the same person will clog up his arteries with fatty food and die of heart disease.
From "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" by Steven D. Levitt
"Nigeria is not safe -- terrorists, kidnappers, bandits everywhere," said Becky Alegbe, a street vendor in Abuja.
From Barron's ● Aug. 19, 2026
On Thursday, his name appeared on Russia's online register of "terrorists and extremists" -- a blacklist maintained by Russia's Rosfinmonitoring financial watchdog.
From Barron's ● Jul. 30, 2026
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to act "with full force against the terrorists and those who orchestrate and sponsor them".
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
A. Dirk Moses, the journal’s senior editor since 2011, argues it is useless to distinguish intentional killing of civilians from collateral damage caused by strikes against terrorists.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026
We were angry with our government and angry with these terrorists for trying to ruin our way of life, but my father said our family should do its best to ignore them as well.
From "Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Changed the World" by Malala Yousafzai
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.
