In law, assault is an act that makes someone fear immediate physical harm, even without any actual contact. Battery is the unlawful touching or striking itself. A simple memory hook: assault is the threat, battery is the contact — which is why the phrase "assault and battery" pairs them so often.
The core difference
Assault is causing fear of immediate harm, even without contact, while battery is the actual unlawful touching or striking.
- assault — in law, an act that makes someone fear immediate physical harm, even without actual contact: Raising his fist at her was enough to count as assault.
- battery — a legal term for unlawfully touching or striking another person: He was charged with assault and battery after the bar fight.
How to tell them apart
The memory hook is contact. Assault can happen with no physical contact at all — raising a fist is enough if it makes someone fear immediate harm. Battery requires actual unlawful touching or striking. That is why the two so often appear together as "assault and battery": the threatening act and the physical act that follows it.
Outside law, assault also has a broader everyday sense, describing any sudden violent attack, physical or verbal, such as an assault on someone's character. Battery has entirely separate everyday senses too, most commonly the device that stores electrical power.
