Onslaught

//ˈɒn.slɔːt// noun

noun ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A fierce attack.
  2. 2
    (military) an offensive against an enemy (using weapons) wordnet
  3. 3
    A large number of people or things resembling an attack. broadly

    "They opened the doors and prepared for the onslaught of holiday shoppers."

  4. 4
    the rapid and continuous delivery of linguistic communication (spoken or written) wordnet
  5. 5
    a sudden and severe onset of trouble wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
attackonrushabuseaggravated assaultaggressionamphibious attack

Example

More examples

"Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them."

Etymology

From on- + slaught. Formed after Middle Dutch aenslag, aenslach, equivalent to aen + slag, although slaught corresponds to Middle Dutch slacht; slag is cognate with the English weaving term sley. Compare Dutch aanslag and German Anschlag.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.