belligerent
Syllables: bel·li·ger·entUK/bəˈlɪdʒ.ə.ɹənt//bəˈlɪd͡ʒ.ɚ.ənt/
belligerent adjective: engaged in warfare, warring.
Adjective
belligerent (comparative more belligerent, superlative most belligerent)
- Engaged in warfare, warring.
- Eager to go to war, warlike.
- Of or pertaining to war.
- Aggressively hostile, eager to fight.
- And I think the facts are that Beijing is a belligerent bully jealous and envious of what Taiwan has accomplished- mainland China- that's what I get out of all of this.1999 August 5, Jesse Helms, quotee, 1:27 from the start, in USA: CHINA/TAIWAN TENSIONS MOUNTING, Associated Press, archived from the original on 31 Jan 2026
- England were not allowed to give their chariot the momentum it had a week ago. It was stopped dead in its tracks by a belligerent Springboks defence that simply refused to yield.2019 November 3, Liam de Carme, “Boks, you beauties”, in Sunday Times
- Synonyms:
- aggressive, antagonistic, bellicose, combative, contentious, pugnacious, quarrelsome, truculent
- Acting violently towards others.
- Uncooperative.
- "Hmm." "Problem?" "Arianna warned me this might be a challenging shoot. I think she was worried about you being belligerent, but the real issue is turning out to be your specularity. It looks like I'm taking pictures of a flashbang."2015 July 9, Dave Barrack, Grrl Power (webcomic), Grrl Power #334 – Make down
Noun
belligerent (plural belligerents)
- A state or other armed participant in warfare
- The UN sent a treaty proposal to the belligerents.
belligerent meaning in Hindi, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada
belligerent in Hindi
- belligerent, aggressive, warlike
- लड़ाका laṛākā
- belligerent, quarrelsome
- झगड़ालू jhagṛālū
belligerent in Bengali
- belligerent
- জঙ্গি joṅgi
belligerent in Malayalam
- വഴക്കിൽ താൽപര്യമുളള, യുദ്ധത്തിലേർപ്പെട്ടിരിക്കുന്ന വ്യക്തി, രാജ്യം എന്നിവ
belligerent in Kannada
- ಜಗಳಗಂಟ, ಯುದ್ಧೋತ್ಸುಕ, ಯುದ್ಧದಲ್ಲಿ ಆಸಕ್ತಿ ಇರುವ, ರಣೋತ್ಸಾಹವುಳ್ಳ, ಯುದ್ಧಾಕಾಂಕ್ಷೆಯುಳ್ಳ
More languagesFewer languages
- belligerent in Thai
- คู่สงคราม
Examples of belligerent in a sentence
- I mean, Rose Quartz discourse MAYBE neared Vriska in ferocity, but PALES in comparison to the sheer belligerent endurance of Vriscourse.
- I think she was worried about you being belligerent, but the real issue is turning out to be your specularity.
- My father's sudden death had just released the Metropolitan from the most persistent, accurate and belligerent critic of its unpunctuality.
Synonyms of belligerent
Antonyms
Forms of belligerent
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more belligerent |
| superlative | most belligerent |
| Noun | |
| plural | belligerents |
Origin of belligerent
From Latin belligerans (“waging war”), present active participle of belligerō (“to wage war”), from belliger (“waging war, warlike”), from bellum (“war”) + -ger (from gerō (“to lead, wage, carry on”)).
Words formed from belligerent
Questions about belligerent
- What does belligerent mean?
- Belligerent means engaged in warfare, warring.
- What is belligerent in Hindi?
- Belligerent in Hindi is लड़ाका (laṛākā), झगड़ालू (jhagṛālū). See Belligerent meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is belligerent?
- Belligerent can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce belligerent?
- Belligerent is pronounced /bəˈlɪdʒ.ə.ɹənt/ (UK).
Words near belligerent in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: belligerent (page history and authors); झगड़ालू (Hindi) (page history and authors); জঙ্গি (Bengali) (page history and authors); belligerent (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); belligerent (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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-belligerent.ogg, en-us-belligerent.ogg.
Cite this entry: “belligerent.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/belligerent. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.