1
: a person who commits murder
especially
: one who murders a politically important person either for money or from fanatical adherence to a cause
2
Assassin
: a member of a Shia Muslim sect who at the time of the Crusades was sent out on a suicidal mission to murder prominent enemies
Examples of assassin in a Sentence
John Wilkes Booth was the assassin of Abraham Lincoln.
shot down by an unknown assassin
Recent Examples on the Web
Unsurprisingly, the government pointed to leftists as the assassins.
—
Matthew Wills, JSTOR Daily, 31 Jan. 2025
Trump had nearly been killed by an assassin’s bullet at a Pennsylvania rally, an act that hit close to home for Kennedy, whose father was assassinated on the Presidential campaign trail.
—Clare Malone, The New Yorker, 29 Jan. 2025
Gerald Posner, an investigative journalist and author of Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK, argues that the evidence points conclusively to Oswald as the sole assassin.
—Gordon G. Chang, Newsweek, 25 Jan. 2025
To get to Danforth, Clay blows up office buildings, sets another assassin on fire and destroys teams of contract killers.
—Robert Daniels, New York Times, 24 Jan. 2025
See all Example Sentences for assassin 
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Matthew Wills, JSTOR Daily, 31 Jan. 2025
Trump had nearly been killed by an assassin’s bullet at a Pennsylvania rally, an act that hit close to home for Kennedy, whose father was assassinated on the Presidential campaign trail.
—Clare Malone, The New Yorker, 29 Jan. 2025
Gerald Posner, an investigative journalist and author of Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK, argues that the evidence points conclusively to Oswald as the sole assassin.
—Gordon G. Chang, Newsweek, 25 Jan. 2025
To get to Danforth, Clay blows up office buildings, sets another assassin on fire and destroys teams of contract killers.
—Robert Daniels, New York Times, 24 Jan. 2025
See all Example Sentences for assassin
Dictionary Entries Near assassin
Cite this Entry
“Assassin.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/assassin. Accessed 9 Feb. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
assassin
noun
as·sas·sin
ə-ˈsas-ən 
: a person who kills another person
especially
: one who murders a politically important person either for pay or from loyalty to a cause
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