Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use combative in a sentence

16 example sentences · adjective

Combative means given to fighting; disposed to engage in combat; pugnacious. Example: “Their combative conduct leads to many problems.”

Examples of combative by meaning

adjectiveGiven to fighting; disposed to engage in combat; pugnacious.

  • Their combative conduct leads to many problems.
  • He finds, not “demigods” but “a combative group of exhausted, drunken, broken, petty, partisan, scheming, squabbling, bloviating, sensory-deprived, underoxygenated, fed-up, talked-out, overheated delegates so distraught they threatened violence, secession.2013, The Ultimate Daily Show and Philosophy
  • Salvation arrived - as it so often has in this nerve-shredding campaign - through Dykes, the combative striker.2021 October 12, Jamie Lyall, “Faroe Islands 0-1 Scotland”, in BBC Sport

More sentences with combative

  • Despite leadership errors and fewer men, the German army displayed unexpected combative spirit.2024 May 27, “D-Day and the Tremendous Cost of Victory”, in Deutsche Welle, archived from the original on 08 Jun 2024, History. From the entry Omaha Beach
  • But the virus has pushed their combative tactics to the centre of Beijing’s foreign policy approach.2020 May 12, Kathrin Hille, “‘Wolf warrior’ diplomats reveal China’s ambitions”, in Financial Times, archived from the original on 03 Jul…. From the entry wolf warrior
  • England’s combative coach . . . wants aggression, a touch of the outlaw, a mean streak.2016 March 10, Paul Hayward, “Sport: Eddie Jones takes England siege mentality to the extreme”, in Telegraph, UK, retrieved 14 Sep 2017. From the entry mean streak
  • Hume's pacificity and neutrality contrast with Gibbon's combative attitude and his interest in subjective, personalized experience.2014, Charlotte Roberts, Edward Gibbon and the Shape of History, page 170. From the entry pacificity
  • Third, hoplological analysis suggests that research be conducted by individuals trained in combative arts.1978, Play, Anthropological Perspectives, Leisure Press, page 81. From the entry hoplological
  • Altman tweeted a sunny message after the combative announcement.2023 November 18, Blake Montgomery, Dani Anguiano, “OpenAI fires co-founder and CEO Sam Altman for allegedly lying to company board”, in…. From the entry sunny
  • Brokering the deal, while managing the egos of combative founders and investors, was Bao Fan, the rainmaker of China’s tech industry.2023 February 22, Li Yuan, “China’s Tech Rainmaker Vanishes, and So Does Business Confidence”, in The New York Times, →ISSN. From the entry rainmaker
  • Swatting started in the combative world of online gaming.2020 January 23, Sheera Frenkel, “People Are Calling SWAT Teams to Tech Executives’ Homes”, in The New York Times, →ISSN. From the entry swatting
  • He is usually reading with a cutting comment that can wither the insecure and devastate the less combative.1984, Tim LaHaye, “Evaluating Your Strengths and Weaknesses”, in Your Temperament: Discover its Potential, Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House…. From the entry choleric
  • High-strung and irrepressible, George Jefferson quickly became one of America’s most popular television characters, a high-energy, combative black man who backed down to no one.2012 July 24, Mel Watkins, “Sherman Hemsley, ‘Jeffersons’ Star, Is Dead at 74”, in New York Times, retrieved 16 Jun 2013. From the entry irrepressible
  • But Bradley, who dropped the gloves on Gore in a combative debate Wednesday night and called the vice president chronically dishonest, ignored Sullivan's advice.2000 January 30, Thomas DeFrank et al., “George W. & Al Bank on Bubba”, in New York Daily News, retrieved 14 Oct 2008. From the entry drop the gloves
  • Descriptions of him vary from "aggressively intelligent," "inventive," "articulate," "the most ‘op-ed’ academic in the field of education" to "arrogant" "combative," "hostile," and "dismissive" of ideas not his own.1991, The New York Times, The New York Times biographical service, volume 22, Arno Press. From the entry op-ed
  • The distantial function of speed can, to a great exten , be supplemented or entirely replaced by position, but this is not the case with the combative.1907 October, A.C. Dewar, “Speed in Battleship Strategy”, in The United Service Magazine, volume 157, number 947, page 2. From the entry distantial

Meaning of combative

  1. adjective Given to fighting; disposed to engage in combat; pugnacious.

Full definition of combative

Questions about combative in a sentence

How do you use combative in a sentence?
Combative is used as an adjective. For example: “Their combative conduct leads to many problems.”
What is a short sentence with combative?
“Their combative conduct leads to many problems.”
What does combative mean?
Combative means given to fighting; disposed to engage in combat; pugnacious.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: combative (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 combative in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/combative. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.