Other forms: attacks
An attack is a violent attempt to hurt or defeat somebody. Under attack, launch an attack, a personal attack.
It covers physical violence, military action and criticism — a personal attack is an argument aimed at the person rather than the point. In medicine, an attack is a sudden episode: a heart attack, an asthma attack. In sport, the attack is the players trying to score. Note that attack and attach are the same word, from a Frankish verb meaning to stick.
1nounattackA violent attempt to hurt or defeat somebody.~70%
“The village was badly damaged in an attack by enemy soldiers.”
2nounsuddenA sudden episode of illness.~30%
“She had an asthma attack during the race and had to stop.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 20 sentences found in the wild and placed 20 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
attack is an assault or episode.
French attaquer comes through Italian attaccare, to join or attach, from a Frankish word meaning to stick. Attach is the same word, and joining battle is where the fighting sense came from.
French
attaque
English, today
attack
Built from
Borrowed from French attaque. 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”). a doublet of attach. Displaced native onresen, from onrǣsan; and resinge (compare onrǣs (“an attack”)).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA