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'Tyrannicide' literally means the killing of a tyrant. The Monarchomachs in particular developed a theory of tyrannicide.
Typically, the term is taken to mean the killing or assassination of tyrants for the common good. The term ''tyrannicide'' does not apply to tyrants killed in battle or killed by an enemy in an armed conflict. It is rarely applied when a tyrant is killed by a person acting for selfish reasons, such as to take power for themselves. Sometimes, the term is restricted to killings undertaken by people who are actually subject to the tyrant. The term is also used to denote those who actually commit the act of killing a king: ie, Harmodius and Aristogeiton are called 'the tyrannicides'.
Not all overthrowings of tyrants involve tyrannicide because the tyrant might either be killed in battle, kill themselves, or they may be deposed. Also the use of the term "tyrannicide" is subjective since it requires that the user of the term considers the person murdered to have been a tyrant, either in the sense of being cruel or having seized power illegally.
Examples of tyrannicide include those of:

★ Hipparchus (527 BC-514 BC), a Greek and son of Pisistratus; Hipparchus was murdered by Harmodius and Aristogeiton, the original tyrannicides.

★ Julius Caesar, a Roman, was murdered by Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus.

★ John Wilkes Booth believed that his killing of Abraham Lincoln was tyrannicide.

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★ Sic semper tyrannis