Word.ws English Dictionary

fighting word

fighting word is the singular of fighting words.

Meaning of fighting words

Noun

fighting words pl (normally plural, singular fighting word)

  1. (plural, plural-normally, set phrase) Aggressive remarks that foreseeably may lead to a potentially violent confrontation.
  2. (plural, plural-normally, crime) Words or remarks that are often considered a form of mitigation for otherwise sanctionable behavior (such as fighting).

Forms of fighting word

pluralfighting words

Questions about fighting word

What is fighting word the singular of?
Fighting word is the singular of fighting words.

Words near fighting word in the dictionary

  1. fighting the good fight
  2. fighting the tiger
  3. fighting to the death
  4. fighting up
  5. fighting windmills
  6. fighting word
  7. fighting words
  8. fighting-fit
  9. fightingest
  10. fightingly
  11. fightings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fighting word (page history and authors); fighting words (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: “fighting word.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fighting_word. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.