assault

1. 1.

   attack someone physically or emotionally

   “The mugger assaulted the woman”

   “Nightmares assailed him regularly”

   Synonymsassailset onattack

   Narrowerbaitsicbulldogrushblindsidesavagereassailjumpbesetrape
2. 2.

   force (someone) to have sex against their will

   “The woman was raped on her way home at night”

   Synonymsraperavishviolatedishonordishonouroutrage

   Broaderassail

   Narrowergang-rape
3. 3.

   attack in speech or writing

   “The editors of the left-leaning paper attacked the new House Speaker”

   Synonymsattackroundassaillash outsnipe

   Broaderknock

   Narrowerabuseclawvitriolrip

Other forms of assault

plural

assaults·

past tense

assaulted·

present participle

assaulting·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about assault

What does assault mean?

assault means "close fighting during the culmination of a military attack". That is the primary sense; the word has 7 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in assault?

assault has 2 syllables: as-sault. The stress falls on "sault". In IPA it is /əˈsɔlt/.

What is another word for assault?

Close synonyms include rape, violation, ravishment, assail, set on. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is assault a common word?

assault is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.

What rhymes with assault?

3 words rhyme with assault. Rhymes are matched on the phonemes from the last stressed vowel onward, which is the definition a reader has in their head.