A question...

[Namaste]

How important do you have to be to be considered 'assasinated' and not 'murdered'?

[Indrid Cold]

I don't know if you're beging serious, but having been assasinated means you were killed by someone who was payed to kill you by someone else. Murdered is having been killed by the person who wanted to kill you him/herself. It doesn't have to do with importance.

[BumbleBee]

Zalbor - I'm not sure if I would agree with that definition. Surely we couldn't say JFK was assasinated if we believe the official conclusions because Oswald was not paid to kill him.

Personally (and I'm not sure if there is an official definition but I will rethink my position if there is!) I think you would have to be a head of state or hold a very high position of power within Government or politics. I don't think a movie star could be assasinated. I also think the word itself strikes more fear that 'murder' in that is automatically sounds like a more horrendous crime.... at least it does to me personally.

[Braineater]

You have to be held in high esteem in your relative field be it politics, sport, entertainment, science etc for it to be considered an assassination.

John Lennon was "assassinated" while Jill Dando was "murdered".

[solid_L]

All the online dictionaries came up with are:

*To murder (a prominent person) by surprise attack, as for political reasons.
*To destroy or injure treacherously: assassinate a rival's character.

Not really helpful I suppose

I'll have another look later for something a little more specific