Word.ws English Dictionary

hack-and-slash

hack-and-slash adjective: having a focus on violent combat rather than strategy.

Adjective

hack-and-slash (not comparable)

  1. (informal, roleplaying games) Having a focus on violent combat rather than strategy.
  2. Belonging to a genre of video game focused on fast-paced melee combat.
  3. Shallowly devoted to the gory details.
    • "Oh yes, I meant it as a compliment." Olin tapped the books. "I expect to finish these... but for the writing. It's the writing I like. I was surprised to find myself laughing at your quite unsupernatural adventures in Gartsby Castle, and I was surprised to find you as good as you are. As subtle as...1999, Stephen King, 1408

Forms of hack-and-slash

alternative formhack and slash

Words formed from hack-and-slash

Questions about hack-and-slash

What does hack-and-slash mean?
Hack-and-slash means having a focus on violent combat rather than strategy.
What part of speech is hack-and-slash?
Hack-and-slash is an adjective.

Words near hack-and-slash in the dictionary

  1. hack saw
  2. hack saws
  3. hack squat
  4. hack squats
  5. hack up
  6. hack-and-slash
  7. hack-and-slasher
  8. hack-and-slashers
  9. hack-and-slay
  10. hack-iron
  11. hack-irons

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hack-and-slash (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)-Flame, not lame-hack-and-slash.wav.

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