Word.ws English Dictionary

trial by combat

trial by combat noun: a method of Germanic law to settle accusations in the absence of witnesses or a confession in which two parties in dispute fought in single combat; the winner of the fight was proclaimed to be right.

Noun

trial by combat (countable and uncountable, plural trials by combat)

  1. A method of Germanic law to settle accusations in the absence of witnesses or a confession in which two parties in dispute fought in single combat; the winner of the fight was proclaimed to be right.

Forms of trial by combat

pluraltrials by combat
alternative formwager of battle
alternative formtrial by battle
alternative formjudicial duel

Questions about trial by combat

What does trial by combat mean?
Trial by combat means a method of Germanic law to settle accusations in the absence of witnesses or a confession in which two parties in dispute fought in single combat; the winner of the fight was proclaimed to be right.
What part of speech is trial by combat?
Trial by combat is a noun.
What is the plural of trial by combat?
The plural of trial by combat is trials by combat.

Words near trial by combat in the dictionary

  1. trial and error
  2. trial balance
  3. trial balances
  4. trial balloon
  5. trial balloons
  6. trial by combat
  7. trial by fire
  8. trial by jury
  9. trial by media
  10. trial by ordeal
  11. trial court

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: trial by combat (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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