combat
UK/ˈkɒmˌbæt//ˈkɑmˌbæt/
combat noun: a battle, a fight (often one in which weapons are used).
Noun
combat (countable and uncountable, plural combats)
- A battle, a fight (often one in which weapons are used).
- "My tastes," he said, still smiling, "incline me to the garishly sunlit side of this planet." And, to tease her and arouse her to combat: "I prefer a farandole to a nocturne; I'd rather have a painting than an etching; Mr. Whistler bores me with his monochromatic mud; I don't like dull colours...1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter VIII, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC
- In less than eight weeks, five divisions of United States troops have moved into combat, some of them from bases more than 6,000 miles away. More men are on the way. Fighting in difficult country under every kind of hardship, American troops have held back overwhelming numbers of the communist...1950 September 1, Harry S. Truman, 0:56 from the start, in MP72-73 Korea and World Peace: President Truman Reports to the People, Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives...
- a struggle for victory
Verb
combat (third-person singular simple present combats, present participle combating or combatting, simple past and past participle combated or combatted)
- To fight; to struggle against.
- It has proven very difficult to combat drug addiction.
- President Donald Trump’s administration has made combating what it considers anti-Israel and antisemitic movements on college campuses a priority.
He signed an executive order during his second week in office to “combat antisemitism” in schools and on university campuses, and on February 3...2025 March 10, Karina Tsui and Elizabeth Wolfe, “Department of Education investigating 60 colleges and universities over antisemitism claims”, in CNN
- To fight (with); to struggle for victory (against).
- To combat with a blind man I disdain.1671, John Milton, Samson Agonistes
combat meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
combat in Hindi
- a battle; a fight
- संग्राम saṅgrām, युद्ध yuddh, रण raṇ, समर samar
- to fight; to struggle for victory
- संग्राम saṅgrām, युद्ध yuddh
combat in Tamil
- போராள, அடிபாடு
combat in Urdu
- combat, fight, duel, battle, war
- مبارزہ mubārazā
combat in Bengali
- যুদ্ধ, দ্বন্দ্বযুদ্ধ, রণ, যুদ্ধ করা, সংগ্রাম করা, বাধা দেওয়া
More languagesFewer languages
- combat in Telugu
- పోటీ పడు pōṭī paḍu
- combat in Malayalam
- പൊരുതുക, എതിരിടുക, സമരം ചെയ്യുക, യുദ്ധം
- combat in Kannada
- ಹೋರಾಟ, ಕಾಳಗ
- combat in Sanskrit
- रण raṇa
- combat in Arabic
- قِتَال qitāl, قَاتَلَ qātala
Examples of combat in a sentence
- In less than eight weeks, five divisions of United States troops have moved into combat, some of them from bases more than 6,000 miles away.1950 September 1, Harry S. Truman, 0:56 from the start, in MP72-73 Korea and World Peace: President Truman Reports to the People, Harry S....
- Scurvy and other diseases ran rampant, killing more seamen each year than all other causes combined, including combat.2012 March, William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter, “The British Longitude Act Reconsidered”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2...
Forms of combat
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | combats |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | combats |
| present participle | combating |
| present participle | combatting |
| past participle | combated |
| past | combated |
| past participle | combatted |
| past | combatted |
Origin of combat
16th century, borrowed from Middle French combat, deverbal from Old French combatre, from Vulgar Latin *combattere, from Latin com- (“with”) + battuere (“to beat, strike”).
Words formed from combat
- anticombat
- armoured combat
- armored combat
- close combat
- combatable
- combat air patrol
- combatant
- combat armor suit
- combat armour suit
- combatative
- combat boot
- combat box
- combat drone
- combat engineer
- combat fatigue
- combat fatigues
- combat general
- combative
- combat loading
- combat log
- combat pants
- combat pay
- combat-ready
- combat roll
- combat sport
- combat stress reaction
- combat trousers
- combatworthy
- combat zone
- intercombat
- mortal combat
- mutual combat
- noncombat
- postcombat
- post-combat
- pre-combat
- precombat
- single combat
- stage combat
- trial by combat
Phrases with combat
- combat logs
- combat boots
- combat boxes
- combat rolls
- combat zones
- combat drones
- combat logged
- combat sports
- combat logging
- combat engineers
- combat readiness
- trials by combat
14 more phrasesFewer phrases
- combat air patrols
- combat armor suits
- combat armour suits
- armored combat fight
- armored combat fights
- armoured combat fight
- armored combat vehicle
- armoured combat fights
- armored combat fighting
- armored combat vehicles
- armoured combat vehicle
- combat stress reactions
- armoured combat fighting
- armoured combat vehicles
Words that rhyme with combat
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about combat
- What does combat mean?
- Combat means a battle, a fight (often one in which weapons are used).
- What is combat in Hindi?
- Combat in Hindi is संग्राम (saṅgrām), युद्ध (yuddh), रण (raṇ). See Combat meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use combat in a sentence?
- In less than eight weeks, five divisions of United States troops have moved into combat, some of them from bases more than 6,000 miles away.
- What part of speech is combat?
- Combat can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce combat?
- Combat is pronounced /ˈkɒmˌbæt/ (UK).
- What is the plural of combat?
- The plural of combat is combats.
Words near combat in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: combat (page history and authors); combat (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); مبارزہ (Urdu) (page history and authors); combat (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); combat (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); combat (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-combat.ogg.
Cite this entry: “combat.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/combat. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.