Word.ws English Dictionary

firefight

firefight noun: a skirmish involving an exchange of gunfire.

Noun

firefight (plural firefights)

  1. A skirmish involving an exchange of gunfire.
    • Military Specialization
      Soldier
      Soldiers are combat specialists ideal for the front lines of a firefight.2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Profile Reconstruction
  2. (figuratively) An intense argument.
    • Correct. That was actually my first internet controversy many years ago, with the kinists, white identitarians — I call them skinists. And I’ve been in polemical firefights with antisemites and actual misogynists, not people who are accused of being that way.2025 October 9, Ross Douthat, quoting Doug Wilson, “He Believes America Should Be a Theocracy. He Says His Influence Is Growing.”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company...

Verb

firefight (third-person singular simple present firefights, present participle firefighting, simple past and past participle firefought)

  1. To engage in a firefight.
    • His goal: a patch of high ground called Sperwan Ghar, where he and his men firefought a thousand Taliban to take the hill and call in the air strikes critical to turning the tide.2011 July 8, Mark Thompson, “Inside the Battle for Kandahar”, in Time, archived from the original on 16 Nov 2023

Forms of firefight

Noun
pluralfirefights
Verb
third-person singular presentfirefights
present participlefirefighting
past participlefirefought
pastfirefought

Plural of firefight: firefights

Origin of firefight

From fire + fight.

Questions about firefight

What does firefight mean?
Firefight means a skirmish involving an exchange of gunfire.
What part of speech is firefight?
Firefight can be a noun or a verb.
What is the plural of firefight?
The plural of firefight is firefights.

Words near firefight in the dictionary

  1. firefang
  2. firefanged
  3. firefanging
  4. firefangs
  5. firefans
  6. firefight
  7. firefighter
  8. firefighter's carries
  9. firefighter's carry
  10. firefighter's rule
  11. firefighters

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: firefight (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: “firefight.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/firefight. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.