combat

1. 1.

   an engagement fought between two military forces

   Synonymsarmed combat

   Broaderbattle

   Narrowerhostilitiestrench warfareaggression

   Part ofwar

   military

2. 2.

   the act of fighting; any contest or struggle

   “a fight broke out at the hockey game”

   “there was fighting in the streets”

   “the unhappy couple got into a terrible scrap”

   Synonymsfightfightingscrap

   Broaderconflict

   Narrowergunfightbrushclose-quarter fightingdogfightfencingin-fightingset-toshockhassleduel

   Partsblow

1. 1.

   battle or contend against in or as if in a battle

   “The Kurds are combating Iraqi troops in Northern Iraq”

   “We must combat the prejudices against other races”

   “they battled over the budget”

   Synonymsbattle

   Broadercontend

   Narrowerdogfightwrestle

Other forms of combat

plural

combats·

past tense or participle

combatted

present participle

combatting

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about combat

What does combat mean?

combat means "an engagement fought between two military forces". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in combat?

combat has 2 syllables: com-bat. The stress falls on "com". In IPA it is /ˈkɑmbæt/.

What is another word for combat?

Close synonyms include armed combat, fight, fighting, scrap, battle. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is combat a common word?

combat is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.