Onslaught

How to spell onslaught

9 letters · 2 syllables

5 of the 47 people asked to spell onslaught in Spelling Garden got it wrong the first time.

The most common mistake is enslaught. The letters people get wrong are highlighted.

enslaught onslaught

What people typed instead

• enslaught3 people

How to pronounce onslaught

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does onslaught mean?

1. nounA fierce, overwhelming, and sustained attack or barrage, whether physical or figurative.

Onslaught in a sentence

• The small team braced for the onslaught of customer complaints after the launch.

• The castle walls were built to withstand a relentless onslaught.

Where does onslaught come from?

Language of origin: Dutch

Onslaught arrived in English in the early 1600s, borrowed from the Middle Dutch word 'aenslag', a compound of 'aen' meaning 'on' or 'against' and 'slag' meaning 'a blow' or 'a striking'. The original sense described the physical act of striking at something, and the word soon settled into English to mean a fierce, sustained attack. The unusual spelling of the second half was reshaped under the pull of native English words such as 'slay' and 'slaughter', all of which trace back to the old Germanic root for striking and killing; that influence is exactly why we write the silent, unexpected '-ght' rather than something phonetic. A related German word, 'Anschlag' meaning a notice or a striking, comes from the same family. For a modern speller the trap is twofold: the surprising 'a' before the 'ught' and that ghostly '-gh-', neither of which the spoken word announces.

How the word is built

• on- (on, against)
• slaught (a striking or blow, related to slay/slaughter)