onslaught

1. 1.

   a sudden and severe onset of trouble

   Broadertrouble
2. 2.

   (military) an offensive against an enemy (using weapons)

   “the attack began at dawn”

   Synonymsattackonsetonrush

   Broaderoperation

   Narrowerground attackchargebanzai attackdiversionpenetrationblitzstrikecounterattackbombingfire

   Partsassault

   military

3. 3.

   the rapid and continuous delivery of linguistic communication (spoken or written)

   “a barrage of questions”

   “a bombardment of mail complaining about his mistake”

   Synonymsbarragebombardmentoutpouring

   Broaderlanguage

Other forms of onslaught

plural

onslaughts·

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 onslaught

What does onslaught mean?

onslaught means "a sudden and severe onset of trouble". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in onslaught?

onslaught has 2 syllables: on-slaught. The stress falls on "on". In IPA it is /ˈɔnˌslɔt/.

What is another word for onslaught?

Close synonyms include attack, onset, onrush, barrage, bombardment. 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 onslaught a common word?

onslaught is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.