Ambush

How to spell ambush

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce ambush

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does ambush mean?

1. nounA surprise attack made from a concealed position.
2. verbTo attack someone suddenly from a hidden position.

Ambush in a sentence

• noun

  The convoy drove straight into an ambush on the mountain road.

• verb

  The rebels planned to ambush the patrol as it crossed the bridge.

• noun

  The soldiers set up an ambush behind the ridge before dawn.

• verb

  Photographers tried to ambush the actress as she left the hotel.

Where does ambush come from?

Language of origin: French

This word travelled into English from Old French during the 1300s, where the verb embuschier meant 'to set a trap from within the woods'. That French form grew out of the Vulgar Latin verb imboscare, built from the prefix in- meaning 'in' and boscus meaning 'wood' or 'thicket', so the literal idea was 'to hide oneself among the bushes'. The connection to lying concealed in undergrowth is exactly why the modern word still carries the sense of a sudden surprise attack launched from a hidden position. The same boscus root that gave us 'wood' also lies behind the ordinary English word 'bush', which is plainly visible inside the spelling and makes the second half easy to remember. The trickier part is the opening 'am-', which softened from the original 'em-' over the centuries of English use.

How the word is built

• am- (in, from Latin in-)
• bush (woodland, thicket, from Latin boscus)