Belligerence

noun

noun ·4 syllables ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The state of being belligerent; aggressive inclination to war. countable, uncountable

    "A closer look at North Korean history reveals what Pyongyang’s leaders really want their near-farcical belligerence to achieve — a reminder to the world that North Korea exists, and an impression abroad that its leaders are irrational and unpredictable."

  2. 2
    a natural disposition to be hostile wordnet
  3. 3
    hostile or warlike attitude or nature wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
aggressivenessaggressionaggressivenessall-out warantagonismantipathy

Example

More examples

"A closer look at North Korean history reveals what Pyongyang’s leaders really want their near-farcical belligerence to achieve — a reminder to the world that North Korea exists, and an impression abroad that its leaders are irrational and unpredictable."

Etymology

From belligerent + -ence.

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