assassin

English

Wikipedia

Etymology

From French assassin or Italian assassino, from either Arabic حشاشين (ḥaššāšīn, “hashish users”), or أساسيون (ʾasāsiyyūn).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /əˈsasɪn/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æsɪn

Noun

assassin (plural assassins)

1. (historical) A member of a Muslim militant group responsible for murdering Christian leaders during the Crusades.
   • 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays, II.29:

     The Assassines, a nation depending of Phœnicia, are esteemed among the Mahometists of a soveraigne devotion and puritie of maners; they hold, that the readiest and shortest way to gaine Paradise, is to kill some one of a contrary religion [...].

2. Someone who intentionally kills a person, especially a professional who kills a public or political figure.
3. Any ruthless killer.

Synonyms

• See also Wikisaurus:killer

Derived terms

Terms derived from assassin (noun)

assassinate assassination

assassinator assassinatrix

assassinous royal assassin

Translations

member of the historical Ismaili Muslim militant group

• Dutch: Assassijn (nl)
• German: Assassine (de) m
• Greek: ασσασίνος (el) (assasínos) m 
• Hungarian: asszaszin (hu)

• Persian: حشاشین (fa) (ḥaššâšin)
• Polish: asasyn (pl) m
• Slovak: asasín (sk) m
• Turkish: haşhaşi (tr)

one who, motivated by political reasons, intentionally kills a particular person

• Albanian: please add this translation if you can
• Arabic: قاتل (ar) (qātil) m, سفاح (ar) (saffāḥ) m, سفاك (ar) (saffāk) m
• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: терорист (bg) (terorist)
• Catalan: assassí (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 刺客 (cmn) (cìkè), 凶手 (cmn) (xiōngshǒu)

• Czech: atentátník (cs) m
• Danish: attentatmand (da) c
• Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
• Estonian: palgamõrvar (et)
• Finnish: salamurhaaja (fi)
• French: assassin (fr) m
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: Attentäter (de) m, Mörder (de) m
• Greek: δολοφόνος (el) (dolofónos) m and f 
• Hebrew: please add this translation if you can
• Hungarian: bérgyilkos (hu)
• Icelandic: launmorðingi (is) m
• Italian: assassino (it) m
• Japanese: 暗殺者 (ja) (あんさつしゃ, ansatsusha), 刺客 (ja) (しきゃく, shikyaku), キラー (ja) (kirā)

• Jèrriais: assâsîn m
• Khmer: ឃាតករ (km) (kʰiet kɑɑ)
• Korean: 암살자 (ko) (amsalja), 자객 (ko) (jagaek)
• Latin: assassīnus (la) m, percussor (la) m
• Latvian: please add this translation if you can
• Norwegian: leiemorder (no) m
• Oriya: please add this translation if you can
• Persian: آدمکش (fa) (âdamkoš)
• Polish: zamachowiec (pl) m, skrytobójca (pl) m
• Portuguese: assassino (pt) m, assassina (pt) f
• Russian: убийца (ru) (ubíjca) m and f , киллер (ru) (kíller) m , наёмный убийца (ru) (najómnyj ubíjca) m 
• Serbo-Croatian: atentator (sh) m, атентатор (sh) m
• Slovak: atentátnik (sk) m
• Slovene: atentator (sl) m, atentatorka (sl) f
• Spanish: asesino (es) m
• Swedish: lönnmördare (sv) c
• Thai: ผู้สังหาร (th) (pôo săng-hăan)
• Tibetan: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: suikastçı (tr)
• Vietnamese: kẻ ám sát (vi)
• Welsh: please add this translation if you can
• Yiddish: please add this translation if you can

any ruthless killer

• Bulgarian: убиец (bg) (ubíec) m 
• Catalan: assassí (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 暗殺者 (cmn), 暗杀者 (cmn) (ànshāzhě)

• Danish: attentatmand (da) c, morder (da) c, snigmorder (da) c
• Dutch: moordenaar (nl) m
• French: assassin (fr) m
• German: Meuchelmörder (de) m, Auftragsmörder (de) m
• Greek: δολοφόνος (el) (dolofónos) m and f 

• Italian: assassino (it) m
• Jèrriais: assâsîn m
• Polish: zabójca (pl) m
• Russian: убийца (ru) (ubíjca) m and f 
• Scottish Gaelic: murtair (gd) m
• Serbo-Croatian: ubojica (sh), убојица (sh) m
• Slovak: vrah (sk) m
• Spanish: asesino (es) m
• Turkish: katil (tr)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Korean: 자객 (ko) (jagaek)

Verb

assassin (third-person singular simple present assassins, present participle assassining, simple past and past participle assassined)

1. (nonstandard) To assassinate.

Translations

assassinate — see assassinate

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French

Etymology

Arabic, see above.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /a.sa.sɛ̃/

Noun

assassin m (plural assassins)

1. an assassin

Adjective

assassin m (feminine assassine, masculine plural assassins, feminine plural assassines)

1. deadly; fatal; that kills