Combatant Meaning
/ˈkɒm.bə.tənt/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA person engaged in combat, often armed.
adjContending; disposed to contend.
Sentence Examples
Ma'am, we've captured an enemy combatant.
Before he settled down and started a family, Sanjay was a revolutionary combatant.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
CEFR Practice Quiz
The fierce ____ refused to surrender even when surrounded by enemies.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Only an active ____ is allowed to wear this military uniform.
Word Origin & History
Inherited from late Middle English combataunt, from Middle French combatant. By surface analysis, combat + -ant. Doublet of combattant.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Come hither, you that would be combatants:
Henceforth I charge you, as you love our favour,
Quite to forget this quarrel and the cause."
— 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:
"On the passage, one day, for the diversion of those gentlemen, all the boys were called on the quarter deck, and were paired proportionably, and then made to fight; after which the gentlemen gave the combatants from five to nine shillings each."
— 1789, Olaudah Equiano, chapter 3, in The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, volume 1, London: for the author, page 112:
"If any combatant was struck down, and unable to recover his feet, his squire or page might enter the lists, and drag his master out of the press; but in that case the knight was adjudged vanquished […]"
— 1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC:
"“[…] Don’t you realize that alcohol is an essential part of heroism? 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 1993, page 271:
"The leading voices of the womanosphere are using a similar strategy. 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. We need to involve ourselves in the creation of pop culture.”"
— 2025 April 24, Anna Silman, “Now comes the ‘womanosphere’: the anti-feminist media telling women to be thin, fertile and Republican”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The fierce ____ refused to surrender even when surrounded by enemies.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Only an active ____ is allowed to wear this military uniform.