assault rifle

English

Etymology

Calque of German Sturmgewehr (literally “storm rifle”). The Maschinenpistole 44 was called the Sturmgewehr by Adolf Hitler, whence it was renamed to represent the separate class of firearm it represented.

Noun

assault rifle (plural assault rifles)

A military select-fire rifle or carbine that fires a shortened rifle caliber round or lower-power smaller-calibre round, from a high-capacity magazine.
- 2014, Jeff Jacobson, Growth, page 23:
  A man dressed as a lab tech, his blue scrubs startlingly pale against the vivid red and black chaos, moved into sight from behind the SUV. He carried an assault rifle.
(colloquial) Any firearm meeting the definition of an assault weapon, and in the form of a rifle.

Usage notes

Especially in the US, some or all types of semi automatic rifles (assault weapons) are sometimes referred to as assault rifles.

Translations

a rifle

Arabic: بُنْدُقِيَّة هُجُومِيَّة f (bunduqiyya hujūmiyya)
Hijazi Arabic: رَشَّاش m (raššāš)
Bulgarian: автома́т (bg) m (avtomát)
Chinese:
Mandarin: 突擊步槍 / 突击步枪 (tūjī bùqiāng), 攻擊步槍 / 攻击步枪
Czech: útočná puška f
Danish: stormgevær
Dutch: aanvalsgeweer (nl) n
Faroese: álopsbyrsa f
Finnish: rynnäkkökivääri (fi)
French: fusil d’assaut (fr) m
German: Sturmgewehr (de) n
Hebrew: רובה סער (he)
Hungarian: gépkarabély (hu)
Icelandic: hríðskotariffill (is), árásarriffill (is) m
Indonesian: senapan serbu
Italian: fucile d'assalto m
Japanese: 突撃銃 (とつげきじゅう, totsugekijū), アサルトライフル (ja) (asarutoraifuru)
Korean: 돌격소총 (dolgyeoksochong)
Lithuanian: automatas m, šturmo šautuvais
Norwegian: automatgevær
Polish: karabin automatyczny m
Portuguese: fuzil de assalto m
Russian: штурмова́я винто́вка (ru) f (šturmovája vintóvka), автома́т (ru) m (avtomát)
Slovak: automat m
Slovene: jurišna puška f, avtomatska puška f
Spanish: fusil de asalto m, rifle de asalto m, fusa (es) f
Swedish: automatkarbin (sv) c (Sweden), stormgevär (sv) n (Finland)
Turkish: piyade Tüfeği
Ukrainian: штурмова́ гвинті́вка f (šturmová hvyntívka), автома́т (uk) m (avtomát)