martial art
martial art noun: any of several fighting styles which contain systematized methods of training for combat, both armed and unarmed; often practiced as a sport, e.g. boxing, karate, judo, silat, wrestling, or Muay Thai.
Noun
martial art (plural martial arts)
- Any of several fighting styles which contain systematized methods of training for combat, both armed and unarmed; often practiced as a sport, e.g. boxing, karate, judo, silat, wrestling, or Muay Thai.
- Military skills, proficiency in military strategy, prowess in warfare.
- […] of all the modes by which the advantage of his country may be secured, the martial arts and valour are those by which a Swiss the most hopes to promote it.1832, Richard Chenevix, An Essay Upon National Character: 4. On patriotism, p. 481
- Synonyms:
- combat sport
martial art meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Malayalam and Punjabi
martial art in Hindi
- fighting style
- युद्ध कलाएँ yuddh kalāẽ
martial art in Urdu
- martial art
- حربی فنون harbī funūn
martial art in Malayalam
- fighting style
- ആയോധനകല āyōdhanakala
martial art in Punjabi
- martial art
- ਜੰਗੀ ਕਲਾ jaṅgī kalā
More languagesFewer languages
- martial art in Arabic
- فَنٌّ قِتَالِيّ fannun qitāliyy, الفُنُون القِتَالِيَّة al-funūn al-qitāliyya
- martial art in Malay
- seni mempertahankan diri
- martial art in Indonesian
- seni bela diri
- martial art in Persian
- هنر رزمی honar-e razmi
- martial art in Thai
- ศิลปะการต่อสู้ sĭnlábpà gaan dtòr sôo
- martial art in Vietnamese
- môn võ, môn võ thuật, võ thuật, vũ thuật
Synonyms of martial art
Forms of martial art
| plural | martial arts |
|---|
Origin of martial art
Calque of Japanese 武術 (bujutsu), which is itself borrowed from Chinese 武術 /武术 (wǔshù). However, the term had been already mentioned in Pope's Iliad (1715, 4.360), and in Sotheby's Iliad (1831, book 6).
Words formed from martial art
Questions about martial art
- What does martial art mean?
- Martial art means any of several fighting styles which contain systematized methods of training for combat, both armed and unarmed; often practiced as a sport, e.g. boxing, karate, judo, silat, wrestling, or Muay Thai.
- What is martial art in Hindi?
- Martial art in Hindi is युद्ध कलाएँ (yuddh kalāẽ). See Martial art meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is martial art?
- Martial art is a noun.
- What is the plural of martial art?
- The plural of martial art is martial arts.
Words near martial art in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: martial art (page history and authors); حربی فنون (Urdu) (page history and authors); ਜੰਗੀ ਕਲਾ (Punjabi) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-martial art.wav.
Cite this entry: “martial art.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/martial_art. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.