Word.ws English Dictionary

fighting words

fighting words noun: aggressive remarks that foreseeably may lead to a potentially violent confrontation.

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 words

singularfighting word

Questions about fighting words

What does fighting words mean?
Fighting words means aggressive remarks that foreseeably may lead to a potentially violent confrontation.
What part of speech is fighting words?
Fighting words is a noun.

Words near fighting words in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: 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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