pugnacious

Questions about pugnacious

What does pugnacious mean?

pugnacious means "tough and callous by virtue of experience". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in pugnacious?

pugnacious has 3 syllables: pug-nac-ious. The stress falls on "nac". In IPA it is /pəɡˈnæʃɪs/.

What is another word for pugnacious?

Close synonyms include hard-bitten, hard-boiled, rough. 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 pugnacious a common word?

pugnacious is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.