Word.ws English Dictionary

combatant

/ˈkɒm.bə.tənt/US/kəmˈbæ.tənt/

combatant noun: a person engaged in combat, often armed. Also the alternative form of combattant.

Noun

combatant (plural combatants)

  1. A person engaged in combat, often armed.
    • Gladiators were combatants who fought to the death to entertain the public.
    • Come hither, you that would be combatants:
      Henceforth I charge you, as you love our favour,
      Quite to forget this quarrel and the cause.1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
    Synonyms:
    battler, fighter

Adjective

combatant (comparative more combatant, superlative most combatant)

  1. Contending; disposed to contend.
    • Their valours are not yet so combatant,
      Or truly antagonistick, as to fight;1641, Ben Jonson, The Magnetic Lady, New York: Henry Holt, published 1914, act III, scene 5, page 65
  2. Involving combat.
    • He wished he were in a combatant service; he wanted to fight, fight.1921, John Dos Passos, Three Soldiers, New York: Modern Library, published 1932, Part Two, Chapter 1, p. 71

Also used as

combatant is also the alternative form of combattant.

combatant meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Arabic and Malay

combatant in Hindi

person engaged in combat, often armed
योद्धा yoddhā, जंगजू jaṅgjū

combatant in Urdu

person engaged in combat, often armed
جَن٘گجُو jangjū

combatant in Arabic

person engaged in combat, often armed
مُقَاتِل muqātil

combatant in Malay

person engaged in combat, often armed
askar tempur, kombatan, penempur
More languagesFewer languages
combatant in Indonesian
kombatan, petempur
combatant in Persian
رزمنده razmande, محارب mohâreb, مبارز mobârez, جنگجو jangju

Examples of combatant in a sentence

  • The two combatants have been stuck in stalemate-ville for a very long time.
  • Intratheater air transport is used exclusively within one geographic combatant command.
  • The combatants spent the night in separate cells.

All 20 example sentences with combatant

Synonyms of combatant

Forms of combatant

Noun
pluralcombatants
Adjective
comparativemore combatant
superlativemost combatant

Plural of combatant: combatants

Origin of combatant

Inherited from late Middle English combataunt, from Middle French combatant. By surface analysis, combat + -ant. Doublet of combattant.

Words formed from combatant

Questions about combatant

What does combatant mean?
Combatant means a person engaged in combat, often armed.
What is combatant in Hindi?
Combatant in Hindi is योद्धा (yoddhā), जंगजू (jaṅgjū). See Combatant meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is combatant?
Combatant can be a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce combatant?
Combatant is pronounced /ˈkɒm.bə.tənt/ (UK).
What is the plural of combatant?
The plural of combatant is combatants.

Words near combatant in the dictionary

  1. combat zones
  2. combat-readiness
  3. combat-ready
  4. combatability
  5. combatable
  6. combatant
  7. combatants
  8. combatative
  9. combated
  10. combater
  11. combaters

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: combatant (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-combatant.wav.

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