# assassin

> English word · Noun · IPA /əˈsæsɪn/ · frequency rank #11,835

## Definitions
1. Someone who intentionally kills a person, especially a professional who kills a public or political figure.
2. Any ruthless killer.
3. A member of the Nizari Ismaili Muslim community of the Alamut Period.
4. An associated prime of a module.

## Etymology
From either French assassin or Italian assassino, from Arabic أَسَاسِيِّين (ʔasāsiyyīn, “people who are faithful to the foundation [of the faith]”) and the folkloric etymology Arabic حَشَّاشِين (ḥaššāšīn, “hashish users; low-lives”).
The mathematical sense was introduced by Bourbaki, playing on the notation operatorname Ass(M) and the fact that an associated prime is the annihilator of an element, and so is said to kill that element.

## Easily confused with
- **assessing** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/assassin-vs-assessing)
- **assassins** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/assassin-vs-assassins)

## Common misspellings (8)
`asassin`, `asasssin`, `assasin`, `assasisn`, `assassinn`, `assassni`, `asssasin`, `sasassin`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/assassin