Word.ws English Dictionary

battle-royal

battle-royal is the alternative spelling of battle royal.

Meaning of battle royal

Noun

battle royal (plural battles royal or battle royals)

  1. A fight involving three or more individuals, teams, or factions; fought until one person, team, or faction is left standing.
    • I was told that since I was to be there anyway I might as well take part in the battle royal to be fought by some of my schoolmates as part of the entertainment.1952, Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man, Penguin Books (2014), page 17
  2. (broadly) A heated discussion or debate.

Questions about battle-royal

What is battle-royal the alternative spelling of?
Battle-royal is the alternative spelling of battle royal.

Words near battle-royal in the dictionary

  1. battle-ground
  2. battle-grounds
  3. battle-hardened
  4. battle-line
  5. battle-lines
  6. battle-royal
  7. battle-royale
  8. battle-sark
  9. battle-sarks
  10. battle-scarred
  11. battle-sharp

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: battle-royal (page history and authors); battle royal (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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Cite this entry: “battle-royal.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/battle-royal. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.