Pugnaciously

adv

adv ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adverb
  1. 1
    In an aggressive or combative manner.

    "Moreover, in using it he waggled his scalp at her in a way that made his crest of hair bristle up pugnaciously, as if proposing combat with her on the spot."

Adverb
  1. 1
    in a pugnacious manner wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
fightingly

Example

More examples

"Moreover, in using it he waggled his scalp at her in a way that made his crest of hair bristle up pugnaciously, as if proposing combat with her on the spot."

Etymology

From pugnacious + -ly. Attested since the early 19th century.

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