aggression

US/əˈɡɹɛʃən/

aggression noun: the act of initiating hostilities or invasion.

Image: Diego Grez, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

aggression (countable and uncountable, plural aggressions)

The act of initiating hostilities or invasion.
- Control, dispossession, violence, and tyranny are not “defensive”: they are part of an organized, ongoing aggression.2019 April 28, Hagai El-Ad, “What kind of democracy deports human rights workers?”, in Yoni Molad, transl., +972 Magazine
The practice or habit of launching attacks.
Hostile or destructive behavior or actions.
- The decision to impose a steel and aluminum tariff is an act of aggression which makes trade war between the two pillars of the West a grim possibility.2018, Michael Cottakis – LSE, “Colliding worlds: Donald Trump and the European Union”, in LSE's blog
A desire for confrontation and often violence; an urge to physically harm something or someone.
The initiation or threat of conflict; coercion.

aggression meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

aggression in Tamil

வன்தாக்கு, வலியத் தீங்கு செய்தல், வலுச்சண்டைக்குப் போதல், ஆக்கிரமிப்பு, எழுச்சி, தாக்கும் உணர்வு

aggression in Urdu

عداوت, حملہ, جارحیت, پیش قدمی

aggression in Bengali

আক্রমণাত্মক আচরণ

aggression in Malayalam

hostility, belligerence, aggressiveness: കൈയേറ്റം, ആക്രമണം, സമാധാനലംഘനം, സെെനികാക്രമണം, അക്രമോത്സുകത, അക്രമാത്മകത്വം
self-confidence, confidence, boldness: പോരാട്ടവീര്യം, വിശ്വാസം, ദൃഢവിശ്വാസം, ആത്മവിശ്വാസം, ആത്മപ്രത്യയം, നിർഭയത്വം

More languagesFewer languages

aggression in Kannada: ಆಕ್ರಮಣ, ಮುತ್ತಿಗೆ, ದಾಳಿ, ಲಗ್ಗೆ
aggression in Arabic: عُدْوَان ʕudwān, عِدْوَان ʕidwān
aggression in Malay: pencerobohan
aggression in Indonesian: agresi
aggression in Persian: تَجاوُز tajâvoz, پرخاش parxāš
aggression in Thai: ความก้าวร้าว kwaam-gâao-ráao, การรุกราน gaan-rúk-raan
aggression in Vietnamese: xâm lược

Examples of aggression in a sentence

The Mongol people were plagued by internecine conflict until Genghis Khan unified them by focusing their aggression outwards on other peoples.
These terms encapsulate how society often exaggerates male power and aggression while minimizing female agency and violence.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has demonstrated that physical aggression against a sovereign state is a real danger.

All 40 example sentences with aggression

Synonyms of aggression

Antonyms

nonaggression

Forms of aggression

plural	aggressions

Plural of aggression: aggressions

Origin of aggression

From Middle French aggression, from Latin aggressio, from aggressus, past participle of aggredior (“to approach, address, attack”). By surface analysis, ag- + -gress + -ion.

Words formed from aggression

Phrases with aggression

Questions about aggression

What does aggression mean?: Aggression means the act of initiating hostilities or invasion.
What is aggression in Tamil?: Aggression in Tamil is வன்தாக்கு, வலியத் தீங்கு செய்தல், வலுச்சண்டைக்குப் போதல். See Aggression meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is aggression?: Aggression is a noun.
How do you pronounce aggression?: Aggression is pronounced /əˈɡɹɛʃən/ (US).
What is the plural of aggression?: The plural of aggression is aggressions.

Words near aggression in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: aggression (page history and authors); aggression (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); aggression (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); aggression (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); aggression (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); aggression (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-aggression.wav.

Cite this entry: “aggression.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/aggression. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.