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say it: uh-TAK
attack is a noun and verb meaning "(military) an offensive against an enemy (using weapons)". It carries 15 recorded senses.
(military) an offensive against an enemy (using weapons)
“the attack began at dawn”
military
an offensive move in a sport or game
“they won the game with a 10-hit attack in the 9th inning”
ideas or actions intended to deal with a problem or situation
“his approach to every problem is to draw up a list of pros and cons”
“an attack on inflation”
“his plan of attack was misguided”
a decisive manner of beginning a musical tone or phrase
a sudden occurrence of an uncontrollable condition
“an attack of diarrhea”
the onset of a corrosive or destructive process (as by a chemical agent)
“the film was sensitive to attack by acids”
“open to attack by the elements”
launch an attack or assault on; begin hostilities or start warfare with
“Hitler attacked Poland on September 1, 1939 and started World War II”
“Serbian forces assailed Bosnian towns all week”
set to work upon; turn one's energies vigorously to a task
“I attacked the problem as soon as I got out of bed”
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.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for attack come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.