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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

ambush.

The act of concealing oneself and lying in wait to attack or kill by surprise.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈæm.bʊʃ/Australia, UK, US
  1. The act of concealing oneself and lying in wait to attack or kill by surprise.

    countable · uncountable
  2. An attack launched from a concealed position.

    countable · uncountable
  3. The concealed position or state from which a surprise attack is launched.

    countable · uncountable
  4. The troops posted in a concealed place, for attacking by surprise; those who lie in wait.

    countable · uncountable
  5. A group of tigers.

    collective · countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English enbuschen, from Old French enbuscier, anbuchier (verb) (whence Middle French embusche (noun)), from Old French en- + Vulgar Latin boscus (“wood”) (whence also bouquet), from Frankish *busk (“bush”), from Proto-Germanic *buskaz (“bush, heavy stick”). Compare ambuscade. The change to am- from earlier forms in en- is unexplained. More at bush.

verb/ˈæm.bʊʃ/Australia, UK, US
  1. To station in ambush with a view to surprise an enemy.

    obsolete · transitive
  2. To attack by ambush; to waylay.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English enbuschen, from Old French enbuscier, anbuchier (verb) (whence Middle French embusche (noun)), from Old French en- + Vulgar Latin boscus (“wood”) (whence also bouquet), from Frankish *busk (“bush”), from Proto-Germanic *buskaz (“bush, heavy stick”). Compare ambuscade. The change to am- from earlier forms in en- is unexplained. More at bush.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.