murderer

/ˈmʌrdərər/

/ˈmʌdərə/

Other forms: murderers

If you’re looking for a roommate and someone writes murderer under “occupation,” you should definitely keep looking. A murderer is a person who kills deliberately and without justification.

In some instances, killing a person is considered a just or valid action — in a war, a soldier who kills another soldier is not considered to be a murderer, and people who kill in self-defense, to save themselves, are also not murderers. Killing out of anger or for money or revenge is murder, and anyone who does it is a murderer. Charles Manson is in jail for being a murderer. The Old English root of murderer is morðor, "unlawful killing."

Definitions of murderer

1. noun

   a criminal who commits homicide (who performs the unlawful premeditated killing of another human being)
   synonyms: liquidator, manslayer

   examples:

   Jack the Ripper

   an unidentified English murderer in the 19th century

   types:

   assassin, assassinator, bravo

   a murderer (especially one who kills a prominent political figure) who kills by a surprise attack and often is hired to do the deed

   butcher

   a brutal indiscriminate murderer

   cutthroat

   someone who murders by cutting the victim's throat

   fratricide

   a person who murders their brother or sister

   gun, gun for hire, gunman, gunslinger, hired gun, hit man, hitman, shooter, torpedo, triggerman

   a professional killer who uses a gun

   hatchet man, iceman

   a professional killer

   infanticide

   a person who murders an infant

   mass murderer

   a person who is responsible for the deaths of many victims in a single incident

   murderess

   a woman murderer

   parricide

   someone who kills his or her parent

   ripper

   a murderer who slashes the victims with a knife

   serial killer, serial murderer

   someone who murders more than three victims one at a time in a relatively short interval

   matricide

   a person who murders their mother

   patricide

   a person who murders their father

   spree killer

   a serial killer whose murders occur within a brief period of time

   type of:

   criminal, crook, felon, malefactor, outlaw

   someone who has committed a crime or has been legally convicted of a crime

   killer, slayer

   someone who causes the death of a person or animal