Word.ws English Dictionary

eskrima

Syllables: es·kri·ma

eskrima noun: the traditional martial arts of the Philippines, which emphasize the use of sticks, knives, and various improvised weapons.

Noun

eskrima (uncountable)

  1. The traditional martial arts of the Philippines, which emphasize the use of sticks, knives, and various improvised weapons.
    • Of all the disciplines covered here, the arts of kali, arnis and eskrima, from the Philippines, are perhaps the most vigorous, employing an almost balletic violence to prepare for rough nights on the town.2009 April 16, Mandy Katz, “Choose Your Weapon: Exotic Martial Arts”, in New York Times
    Synonyms:
    arnis, kali

Synonyms of eskrima

Origin of eskrima

From Tagalog escrima or eskrima, borrowed from Spanish esgrima, noun form of the verb esgrimir (“to handle a melee weapon whether for offensive or defensive purposes”).

Questions about eskrima

What does eskrima mean?
Eskrima means the traditional martial arts of the Philippines, which emphasize the use of sticks, knives, and various improvised weapons.
What part of speech is eskrima?
Eskrima is a noun.

Words near eskrima in the dictionary

  1. Eskişehir
  2. Eskmeals
  3. eskolaite
  4. Eskridge
  5. Eskridges
  6. eskrima
  7. Eskuara
  8. esky
  9. ESL
  10. Eslam
  11. Eslamshahr

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: eskrima (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:

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