Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use combatant in a sentence

20 example sentences · noun, adjective

Combatant means a person engaged in combat, often armed. Example: “Gladiators were combatants who fought to the death to entertain the public.”

Examples of combatant by meaning

nounA person engaged in combat, often armed.

  • Gladiators were combatants who fought to the death to entertain the public.
  • The combatant and the drunkard are brothers, you genius.”1992, Naguib Mahfouz, chapter 48, in William M. Hutchins, Angele Botros Samaan, transl., Sugar Street, New York: Anchor Books, published...
  • As Brittany Hugoboom put it in an op–ed for the rightwing outlet Quillette: “Conservatives will never win if they imagine themselves as combatants atop defensive battlements, hurling abuse on the mass media.2025 April 24, Anna Silman, “Now comes the ‘womanosphere’: the anti-feminist media telling women to be thin, fertile and Republican”, in...

adjectiveInvolving combat.

  • He wished he were in a combatant service; he wanted to fight, fight.1921, John Dos Passos, Three Soldiers, New York: Modern Library, published 1932, Part Two, Chapter 1, p. 71

More sentences with combatant

  • The two combatants have been stuck in stalemate-ville for a very long time.From the entry -ville
  • Intratheater air transport is used exclusively within one geographic combatant command.From the entry intratheater
  • The combatants spent the night in separate cells.From the entry cell
  • This deflagatory reaction created sufficient pressure to propel a projectile out of a tube with enough speed to kill or injure an opposing combatant.From the entry deflagatory
  • Let's hope the confiscation of unauthorised marketing material guarantees the combatant at least a Military Cross.2012 July 5, Marina Hyde, “London 2012: even Beijing didn't put an army on the gates”, in The Guardian. From the entry medalwise
  • We only understood afterwards that there was some circular about not taking Indians in the combatant ranks.1966, K.A. D. Naoroji, Sainik Samachar - Volume 13, Issues 1-25, page 26. From the entry runround
  • Benci : Or, two lions combatant azure, in base, a mountain of three tops of the second.1901, Howel Wills, Florentine Heraldry: A Supplement to the Guide-books, page 128. From the entry clymant
  • Metallic fangs are widely used by avis combatants, many of them often equipped with spears under their wings.2017, Daniel A. Liut, Reality: The Struggle for Sternessence, BQB Publishing, →ISBN, page 39. From the entry aviarian
  • Fistfights were as common as bums and people abandoned their picnic blankets to make room for the combatants.2011 March 15, David Butler, “Almanac Rugby League – The making of a Swannies fan”, in The Footy Almanac, archived from the original on 26…. From the entry common as bums
  • While the two combatants offer great interfaces and features, there is something to be said for taking the road less traveled.1999 November, Rebecca Rohan, “Beyond the browser wars: Navigator and Explorer aren't the only games in town”, in Black Enterprise, volume…. From the entry only game in town
  • The third was a man of action, a combatant, a bold and impatient executive, breathing fire and steel.1909, O. Henry, Roads of Destiny. From the entry man of action
  • One drizzly morning, I joined a political walking tour to hear former combatants of the Troubles show off Belfast landmarks and tell their stories.2023 November 21, Megan K. Stack, “Is Ireland Headed for a Merger?”, in The New York Times. From the entry commodification
  • The real issue – one emphasized in informal conversations – seems to be that unless the target is a duly designated "combatant," the targeted killing would become an "assassination."2009, Benjamin Wittes, Legislating the War on Terror: An Agenda for Reform, Brookings Institution Press, →ISBN, page 366. From the entry targeted killing
  • In wartime, however, the prohibition against targeted killing is more elusive because the law stipulates that combatants, regardless of their rank or official role, are potential targets.2008, Mark R. Amstutz, International Ethics: Concepts, Theories, and Cases in Global Politics, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc…. From the entry targeted killing
  • The worst part, the refugees say, is maneuvering survival in a war whose combatants are often quick-change artists, looking like a neighbor by day and a killer by night.1998 August 19, Diana Jean Schemo, “Colombian Rebels Broaden Offensive”, in New York Times, retrieved 24 May 2013. From the entry quick-change artist
  • Another psychological process that may help to explain why a war absorbs more and more of the combatants’ emotions and energies has been given the mouthfilling designation “circular incremental magnification.”1967, Jerome D[avid] Frank, “Psychological Aspects of Prewar Crises and War”, in Sanity and Survival: Psychological Aspects of War and…. From the entry mouthfilling

Meaning of combatant

  1. noun A person engaged in combat, often armed.
  2. adjective Contending; disposed to contend.
  3. adjective Involving combat.

Full definition of combatant

Questions about combatant in a sentence

How do you use combatant in a sentence?
Combatant is used as a noun and adjective. For example: “Gladiators were combatants who fought to the death to entertain the public.”
What is a short sentence with combatant?
“The combatants spent the night in separate cells.”
What does combatant mean?
Combatant means a person engaged in combat, often armed.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: combatant (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use combatant in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/combatant. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.