Belligerent

//bəˈlɪd͡ʒ.ə.ɹənt// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A state or other armed participant in warfare

    "The UN sent a treaty proposal to the belligerents."

  2. 2
    someone who fights (or is fighting) wordnet
Adjective
  1. 1
    Engaged in warfare, warring.
  2. 2
    Eager to go to war, warlike.
  3. 3
    Of or pertaining to war.
  4. 4
    Aggressively hostile, eager to fight. broadly

    "England were not allowed to give their chariot the momentum it had a week ago. It was stopped dead in its tracks by a belligerent Springboks defence that simply refused to yield."

  5. 5
    Acting violently towards others.
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  1. 6
    Uncooperative.
Adjective
  1. 1
    characteristic of an enemy or one eager to fight wordnet
  2. 2
    engaged in war wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
aggressivecombatanthostileacridacrimoniousaggressive

Example

More examples

"She flaunts a belligerent attitude."

Etymology

From Latin belligerans (“waging war”), present active participle of belligerō (“I wage war”), from belliger (“waging war, warlike”), from bellum (“war”) + -ger (from gerō (“I lead, wage, carry on”)).

Related phrases

non-belligerent

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