He pleaded self-defense at the trial and went scot-free.
Source: tatoeba (296824)
Self-defense
Synonyms for "self-defense" (20 found)
Ranked by relevance and common usage.
Closest matches (4)
Strong matches (6)
Related words (10)
Related word relations
OpenGloss and ConceptNet supply richer edges like generalizations, collocations, and derivations.
More general
1 entriesRelated terms
2 entriesderived
1 entriesTranslations
88 translations across 43 languages.
Albanian
1 entries- vetëmbrojtje noun (means of defending oneself from attack)
Arabic
1 entries- دِفَاع عَنِ النَّفْسِ noun (means of defending oneself from attack)
Armenian
1 entries- ինքնապաշտպանություն noun (means of defending oneself from attack)
Azerbaijani
4 entries- zəruri müdafiə noun (law: the right to protect oneself against violence by using reasonable force)
- özünümüdafiə noun (means of defending oneself from attack)
- özünümüdafiə noun (law: the right to protect oneself against violence by using reasonable force)
- özünüqoruma noun (means of defending oneself from attack)
Belarusian
2 entries- самаабаро́на noun (means of defending oneself from attack)
- самаабаро́на noun (law: the right to protect oneself against violence by using reasonable force)
Bulgarian
2 entries- самоотбра́на noun (means of defending oneself from attack)
- самоотбра́на noun (law: the right to protect oneself against violence by using reasonable force)
Catalan
3 entries- autodefensa noun (means of defending oneself from attack)
- defensa personal noun (means of defending oneself from attack)
- legítima defensa noun (law: the right to protect oneself against violence by using reasonable force)
Chinese Mandarin
3 entries- 正當防衛 /正当防卫 noun (law: the right to protect oneself against violence by using reasonable force)
- 自衛 /自卫 noun (means of defending oneself from attack)
- 護身 /护身 noun (means of defending oneself from attack)
Czech
2 entries- sebeobrana noun (means of defending oneself from attack)
- sebeobrana noun (law: the right to protect oneself against violence by using reasonable force)
Danish
1 entries- selvforsvar noun (means of defending oneself from attack)
Dutch
1 entries- zelfverdediging noun (means of defending oneself from attack)
Estonian
1 entries- enesekaitse noun (means of defending oneself from attack)
Faroese
2 entries- neyðverja noun (law: the right to protect oneself against violence by using reasonable force)
- sjálvverja noun (means of defending oneself from attack)
Finnish
2 entries- hätävarjelu noun (law: the right to protect oneself against violence by using reasonable force)
- itsepuolustus noun (means of defending oneself from attack)
French
2 entries- autodéfense noun (means of defending oneself from attack)
- légitime défense noun (law: the right to protect oneself against violence by using reasonable force)
Georgian
2 entries- თავდაცვა noun (means of defending oneself from attack)
- თავდაცვა noun (law: the right to protect oneself against violence by using reasonable force)
German
2 entries- Notwehr noun (law: the right to protect oneself against violence by using reasonable force)
- Selbstverteidigung noun (means of defending oneself from attack)
Greek
2 entries- αυτοάμυνα noun (means of defending oneself from attack)
- αυτοάμυνα noun (law: the right to protect oneself against violence by using reasonable force)
Hebrew
2 entries- הֲגָנָה עַצְמִית noun (means of defending oneself from attack)
- הִתְגּוֹנְנוּת noun (means of defending oneself from attack)
Hindi
1 entries- आत्मरक्षा noun (means of defending oneself from attack)
Hungarian
2 entries- (jogos) önvédelem noun (law: the right to protect oneself against violence by using reasonable force)
- önvédelem noun (means of defending oneself from attack)
Indonesian
1 entries- pembelaan terpaksa noun (law: the right to protect oneself against violence by using reasonable force)
Iranian Persian
1 entries- دِفاعِ شَخْصی noun (means of defending oneself from attack)
Italian
1 entries- autodifesa noun (means of defending oneself from attack)
Japanese
2 entries- 正当防衛 noun (law: the right to protect oneself against violence by using reasonable force)
- 自己防衛 noun (means of defending oneself from attack)
Korean
2 entries- 자기방어 noun (means of defending oneself from attack)
- 정당방위 noun (law: the right to protect oneself against violence by using reasonable force)
Macedonian
2 entries- самоодбрана noun (means of defending oneself from attack)
- самоодбрана noun (law: the right to protect oneself against violence by using reasonable force)
Malay
2 entries- pertahanan kendiri noun (law: the right to protect oneself against violence by using reasonable force)
- silat noun (means of defending oneself from attack)
Māori
1 entries- parahau whaiaro noun (means of defending oneself from attack)
Norwegian Bokmål
1 entries- selvforsvar noun (means of defending oneself from attack)
Polish
2 entries- samoobrona noun (means of defending oneself from attack)
- samoobrona noun (law: the right to protect oneself against violence by using reasonable force)
Portuguese
4 entries- autodefesa noun (means of defending oneself from attack)
- autodefesa noun (law: the right to protect oneself against violence by using reasonable force)
- defesa pessoal noun (means of defending oneself from attack)
- legítima defesa noun (law: the right to protect oneself against violence by using reasonable force)
Romanian
2 entries- autoapărare noun (means of defending oneself from attack)
- legitimă apărare noun (law: the right to protect oneself against violence by using reasonable force)
Russian
3 entries- самозащи́та noun (law: the right to protect oneself against violence by using reasonable force)
- самооборо́на noun (means of defending oneself from attack)
- самооборо́на noun (law: the right to protect oneself against violence by using reasonable force)
Serbo-Croatian
4 entries- samoòbrana noun (means of defending oneself from attack)
- samoòbrana noun (law: the right to protect oneself against violence by using reasonable force)
- samoòdbrana noun (means of defending oneself from attack)
- samoòdbrana noun (law: the right to protect oneself against violence by using reasonable force)
Slovak
2 entries- sebaobrana noun (means of defending oneself from attack)
- sebaobrana noun (law: the right to protect oneself against violence by using reasonable force)
Slovene
1 entries- samoobramba noun (means of defending oneself from attack)
Spanish
4 entries- autodefensa noun (means of defending oneself from attack)
- defensa personal noun (means of defending oneself from attack)
- defensa propia noun (law: the right to protect oneself against violence by using reasonable force)
- legítima defensa noun (law: the right to protect oneself against violence by using reasonable force)
Swedish
2 entries- nödvärn noun (law: the right to protect oneself against violence by using reasonable force)
- självförsvar noun (means of defending oneself from attack)
Tamil
2 entries- தற்காப்பு noun (means of defending oneself from attack)
- தற்காப்பு noun (law: the right to protect oneself against violence by using reasonable force)
Turkish
2 entries- meşru müdafaa noun (law: the right to protect oneself against violence by using reasonable force)
- nefsi müdafaa noun (means of defending oneself from attack)
Ukrainian
3 entries- самоза́хист noun (law: the right to protect oneself against violence by using reasonable force)
- самооборо́на noun (means of defending oneself from attack)
- самооборо́на noun (law: the right to protect oneself against violence by using reasonable force)
Vietnamese
1 entries- sự tự vệ noun (means of defending oneself from attack)
Sample sentences
12 total sentences available.
She took night classes in the art of self-defense.
Source: tatoeba (313549)
The instinct of self-defense is inherent in any animal.
Source: tatoeba (321247)
Boeing developed a flying boat for the Maritime Self-Defense Force.
Source: tatoeba (327278)
Showing 4 of 12 available sentences.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.