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say it: uh-TAK
attack is a noun and verb meaning "(military) an offensive against an enemy (using weapons)". It is pronounced /əˈtæk/ — uh-TAK. 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.