Assassination

In its most common use, assassination has come to mean the killing of an important person. An assassin — one who carries out the assassination — is usually motivated by ideological or political reasons. Other motivations may be money in the case of a hitman; opposition to a person's beliefs or belief systems in the case of a fanatic; orders from a government that are often carried about by a subversive agent such as a spy; or loyalty to a competing leader or group.

Related lists

• List of assassins
• List of unsuccessful assassinations
• List of assassinated people
• List of unsuccessful U.S. Presidential assassination attempts