Word.ws English Dictionary

attritional

US/əˈtɹɪ.ʃə.nəl/

attritional adjective: of or pertaining to attrition.

attritional: Rustic stone staircase with a window in an old building
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Adjective

attritional (comparative more attritional, superlative most attritional)

  1. Of or pertaining to attrition.
    • a prolonged attritional battle
    • attritional wear on a molar

Examples of attritional in a sentence

  • After months of attritional, heavy-handed flirting […]2009 February 1, Victoria Coren, “Ah, first love … lots of Steven Berkoff and no snogging”, in The Guardian:
  • Their armor and equipment suggest a technologically advanced species capable of spaceflight, while their battle tactics indicate attritional warfare with a centralized command.2017, BioWare, Mass Effect: Andromeda, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Unknown Species Codex entry:
  • The drama of the finale was at odds with almost of all the match, which was an attritional affair on a tricky surface.2019 July 14, Stephan Shemilt, “England win Cricket World Cup: Ben Stokes stars in dramatic finale against New Zealand”, in BBC Sport...
  • The first half was attritional, too congested for England’s liking.2025 March 24, David Hytner, “Reece James bends it like Beckham to help England break down Latvia”, in The Guardian:

Forms of attritional

comparativemore attritional
superlativemost attritional

Origin of attritional

From attrition + -al.

Words formed from attritional

Words that rhyme with attritional

Questions about attritional

What does attritional mean?
Attritional means of or pertaining to attrition.
How do you use attritional in a sentence?
After months of attritional, heavy-handed flirting […]
What part of speech is attritional?
Attritional is an adjective.
How do you pronounce attritional?
Attritional is pronounced /əˈtɹɪ.ʃə.nəl/ (US).

Words near attritional in the dictionary

  1. attriting
  2. attrition
  3. attrition bias
  4. attrition damage
  5. attrition warfare
  6. attritional
  7. attritional mortality
  8. attritionally
  9. attritionary
  10. attritioned
  11. attritioning

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: attritional (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.

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

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