riposte

noun

ri·​poste ri-ˈpōst How to pronounce riposte (audio)
1
: a fencer's quick return thrust following a parry
2
: a retaliatory verbal sally : retort
3
: a retaliatory maneuver or measure
riposte verb

Did you know?

In the sport of fencing, a riposte is a counterattack made after successfully fending off one's opponent. English speakers borrowed the name for this particular maneuver from French in the early 1700s, but the French had simply modified the Italian word risposta, which literally means "answer." Ultimately these words come from the Latin verb respondēre, meaning "to respond." It seems fitting that riposte has since come full circle to now refer to a quick and witty response performed as a form of retaliation.

Examples of riposte in a Sentence

he's known for having a brilliant riposte to nearly any insult
Recent Examples on the Web Microsoft’s riposte could come as soon as OpenAI’s GPT-5 is ready for action (a date that OpenAI has so far kept mum about). Alexei Oreskovic, Fortune, 9 Feb. 2024 Where Putin did attempt concretely to push disinformation, a tsunami of ripostes blanketed the internet. Melik Kaylan, Forbes, 10 Feb. 2024 The Lafayette Hotel & Club The Lafayette’s exuberant, eclectic decor provides a bold, colorful riposte to anodyne hotel design. Jeff Chu, Travel + Leisure, 25 Jan. 2024 Onstage at the Duke of York’s Theatre, no plummy riposte gets the better of her. Peter Marks, Washington Post, 6 Dec. 2023 His lawyers have offered relatively little in the way of riposte—and have been pilloried for it. WIRED, 20 Oct. 2023 One Israeli police officer, his pistol a pitiful riposte to the automatic weapons of Hamas terrorists, screamed at her to go east, away from Gaza. Roger Cohen Avishag Shaar-Yashuv, New York Times, 15 Oct. 2023 In that sense, my book is a riposte to that kind of right-wing mythmaking. Jasmine Liu, The New Republic, 12 July 2023 Throughout the Cold War, Russia and the United States both knew that a nuclear war was unwinnable—an attack by one would surely produce a cataclysmic riposte by the other. Matthew Gavin Frank, Harper's Magazine, 3 May 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'riposte.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

French, modification of Italian risposta, literally, answer, from rispondere to respond, from Latin respondēre

First Known Use

1707, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of riposte was in 1707

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Dictionary Entries Near riposte

Cite this Entry

“Riposte.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/riposte. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

riposte

noun
ri·​poste ri-ˈpōst How to pronounce riposte (audio)
1
: a fencer's quick return thrust
2
: a quick reply or action in return

More from Merriam-Webster on riposte

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