Word.ws English Dictionary

pugnacious

/pʌɡˈneɪ.ʃəs/

pugnacious adjective: naturally aggressive or hostile; combative; belligerent; bellicose.

Adjective

pugnacious (comparative more pugnacious, superlative most pugnacious)

  1. Naturally aggressive or hostile; combative; belligerent; bellicose.
    • Not that the doctor was a bully, or even pugnacious, in the usual sense of the word; he had no disposition to provoke a fight, no propense love of quarrelling.1858, Anthony Trollope, chapter 3, in Doctor Thorne. […], volume I, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 53
    • As he made the demand he spat out a mouthful of blood and teeth and shoved his pugnacious face close to Oofty-Oofty.1904, Jack London, chapter 15, in The Sea-Wolf (Macmillan’s Standard Library), New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →OCLC

pugnacious meaning in Urdu, Malayalam, Kannada and Punjabi

pugnacious in Urdu

جنگجو, لڑاکو

pugnacious in Malayalam

അടിപിടികൂടുന്ന, പോരാടുന്ന, വഴക്കിടുന്ന, വഴക്കാളിയായ

pugnacious in Kannada

ಜಗಳಗಂಟ, ಜಗಳಕ್ಕೆ ಬರುವ

pugnacious in Punjabi

pugnacious, quarrelsome, obstinate
کبا kabbā

Examples of pugnacious in a sentence

  • In the face of bad news Churchill normally became even more pugnacious, always wanting to respond to defeat by going on the attack.2003, Ken Follett, Hornet Flight, →ISBN, pages 249–250:
  • Le Pen suggested that her “pugnacious” young protégé, Jordan Bardella, who is one of the most popular politicians in France, was ready to become prime minister.2025 September 8, Roger Cohen, “French Prime Minister Bayrou Loses Confidence Vote, Putting Pressure on Macron”, in The New York Times, New...

Forms of pugnacious

comparativemore pugnacious
superlativemost pugnacious

Origin of pugnacious

From the stem of Latin pugnāx + -ous, from pugnō (“to fight”), from pugnus (“fist”). By surface analysis, Latin pugn- + -acious.

Words formed from pugnacious

Words that rhyme with pugnacious

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about pugnacious

What does pugnacious mean?
Pugnacious means naturally aggressive or hostile; combative; belligerent; bellicose.
What is pugnacious in Urdu?
Pugnacious in Urdu is جنگجو, لڑاکو. See Pugnacious meaning in Urdu.
How do you use pugnacious in a sentence?
In the face of bad news Churchill normally became even more pugnacious, always wanting to respond to defeat by going on the attack.
What part of speech is pugnacious?
Pugnacious is an adjective.
How do you pronounce pugnacious?
Pugnacious is pronounced /pʌɡˈneɪ.ʃəs/ (UK).

Words near pugnacious in the dictionary

  1. pugmarks
  2. pugmill
  3. pugmills
  4. Pugmire
  5. Pugmires
  6. pugnacious
  7. pugnaciously
  8. pugnaciousness
  9. pugnacities
  10. pugnacity
  11. pugnatious

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pugnacious (page history and authors); pugnacious (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); pugnacious (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); pugnacious (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); کبا (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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