Bellicose

//ˈbɛlɪkoʊs// adj

adj ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Warlike in nature; aggressive; hostile.

    "CHINA sent both bellicose and conciliatory signals yesterday as tension continued in the Taiwan Strait over Chinese military exercises and the deployment of US naval battle groups."

  2. 2
    Showing or having the impulse to be combative.
Adjective
  1. 1
    having or showing a ready disposition to fight wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
warlikeaggressiveantagonisticargumentativeassertivebattleful

Example

More examples

"They would unquestionably diminish his bellicose outbursts."

Etymology

Etymology tree Old Latin duellumder. Latin bellum Proto-Indo-European *-kos Proto-Italic *-kos Latin -cus Latin -icus Latin bellicusder. Latin bellicum signumclip.? Latin bellicum Proto-Indo-European *h₃ed-der. Proto-Indo-European *-h₃d-s-o-? Latin -ōsus Latin bellicosusder. Middle English bellicose English bellicose From Middle English bellicose, from Latin bellicosus.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.