combat

CEFRB2

/kəmˈbæt/

noun · verb

Türkçe translations

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In plain English

01
noun
Fighting between people or groups.
02
verb
To fight or try to stop something.

Examples

Combat soldiers during peaceful moments like to reminisce of their halcyon days.
There's nothing like close combat to test one's mettle.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses: 5
Parts of speech: 2
Citations: 5

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

a struggle for victory
To fight; to struggle against.
A battle, a fight (often one in which weapons are used).

More examples

In context

He was sent into combat.
It has proven very difficult to combat drug addiction.
To combat with a blind man I disdain.

Quick test

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Question 1 · Quick check

The soldiers trained hard for hand-to-hand blank in the harsh desert conditions.

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Citations

The word in print, with each source given in full.

President Donald Trump’s administration has made combating what it considers anti-Israel and antisemitic movements on college campuses a priority. He signed an executive order during his second week in office to “combat antisemitism” in schools and on university campuses, and on February 3 announced the creation of a multiagency task force to carry out the mandate.
2025 March 10, Karina Tsui and Elizabeth Wolfe, “Department of Education investigating 60 colleges and universities over antisemitism claims”, in CNN
To combat with a blind man I disdain.
1671, John Milton, Samson Agonistes
"My tastes," he said, still smiling, "incline me to the garishly sunlit side of this planet." And, to tease her and arouse her to combat: "I prefer a farandole to a nocturne; I'd rather have a painting than an etching; Mr. Whistler bores me with his monochromatic mud; I don't like dull colours, dull sounds, dull intellects;[…]."
1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter VIII, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC
In less than eight weeks, five divisions of United States troops have moved into combat, some of them from bases more than 6,000 miles away. More men are on the way. Fighting in difficult country under every kind of hardship, American troops have held back overwhelming numbers of the communist invaders.
1950 September 1, Harry S. Truman, 0:56 from the start, in MP72-73 Korea and World Peace: President Truman Reports to the People, Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives Identifier: 595162
Conditions were horrendous aboard most British naval vessels at the time. Scurvy and other diseases ran rampant, killing more seamen each year than all other causes combined, including combat.
2012 March 26, William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter, “The British Longitude Act Reconsidered”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 87

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Origin

noun

16th century, borrowed from Middle French combat, deverbal from Old French combatre, from Vulgar Latin *combattere, from Latin com- (“with”) + battuere (“to beat, strike”).

Deep Dive

noun

More examples

Quick test

The soldiers trained hard for hand-to-hand blank— in the harsh desert conditions.

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Origin

noun

The soldiers trained hard for hand-to-hand blank in the harsh desert conditions.