attack
/əˈtæk/
Word Rarity
Common
Frequency: 5.09 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An attempt to detract from the worth or credibility of, a person, position, idea, object, or thing, by physical, verbal, emotional, or other assault.
noun
An attempt to exploit a vulnerability in a computer system.
noun
Collectively, the bowlers of a cricket side.
Example Sentences
- "From 1906 to 1960, there were forty-six recorded shark attacks, half of which were fatal."
- "One particularly damaging, but often ignored, effect of conflict on education is the proliferation of attacks on schools[…]as children, teachers or school buildings become the targets of attacks. Parents fear sending their children to school. Girls are particularly vulnerable to sexual violence."
- "Combat in Mimesis Online is nice and simple. You click on your target […] and then keep right-clicking your chosen attack from the drop down menu. Every time you right click on the attack, your character will swing, shoot, etc."
- "Kleavor has several attacks that it's worth roughly memorising: a charge attack, where it runs at you quickly; a jump attack, that causes a pillar of rock to spike out from under the ground; and a spin attack that does damage in a circle around it."
- "“I came down like a wolf on the fold, didn’t I ? Why didn’t I telephone ? Strategy, my dear boy, strategy. This is a surprise attack, and I’d no wish that the garrison, forewarned, should escape. …”"
- "They claimed the censorship of the article was an attack on free speech."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂éd Proto-Italic *ad Proto-Italic *ad- Latin ad- Italian a- Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁ ▲ Proto-Indo-European *trísinflu. Proto-Indo-European *d(w)is- Proto-Italic *dis- Latin dis- Old French des- Proto-Indo-European *(s)teyg- Proto-Germanic *stikaną Proto-West Germanic *stekander. Old French atachier Old French destachier Middle French destacherbor. Italian distaccare Italian staccare Italian attaccarebor. French attaquerdeverb. French attaquebor. English attack Borrowed from French attaque, derived from the verb attaquer, from Italian attaccare (“to join, attach”) (used in attaccare battaglia (“to join battle”)), from Frankish *stakkijan (“to stick, stick to, attach”). Doublet of attach. Displaced native Middle English onresen, from Old English onrǣsan (“to attack”); and Middle English resinge (“an assault, attack”) (compare Old English onrǣs (“an attack”)).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: attaccare, *stakkijan
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /əˈtæk/
- British English: /əˈtæk/
Usage
Inflected Forms
attacks (plural)
attacks (present, singular)
attacking (participle, present)
attacked (participle, past)
attacked (past)
attackt (obsolete, participle)
attackt (obsolete, past)
attackted (dialectal, obsolete)
no-table-tags (table tags)
glossary (inflection template)
attacked (first person, past)
attackest (archaic, present)