as in aggressive
feeling or displaying eagerness to fight
a seafarer's legend that the remote island was inhabited by a warlike and uncivilized tribe
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of warlike
His warlike actions in Iran, despite campaign promises to the contrary, blatantly bypassed the need to gain approval from the legislative branch of government.
—
Reader Commentary,
Baltimore Sun,
29 June 2025
The bottom line: Bipartisanship is the most obvious casualty of Schumer's new warlike posture toward the GOP.
—
Hans Nichols,
Axios,
21 Mar. 2025
Freyja, however, is a more warlike goddess, and even has a part in selecting warriors for her hall in the afterlife.
—
Erik Kain,
Forbes,
2 Jan. 2025
The Coming Economic Crisis Outwardly, many Russians seem to support the Kremlin’s warlike stance toward the West.
—
Andrei Kolesnikov,
Foreign Affairs,
9 Feb. 2022
See All Example Sentences for warlike
Reader Commentary,
Baltimore Sun,
29 June 2025
The bottom line: Bipartisanship is the most obvious casualty of Schumer's new warlike posture toward the GOP.
—
Hans Nichols,
Axios,
21 Mar. 2025
Freyja, however, is a more warlike goddess, and even has a part in selecting warriors for her hall in the afterlife.
—
Erik Kain,
Forbes,
2 Jan. 2025
The Coming Economic Crisis Outwardly, many Russians seem to support the Kremlin’s warlike stance toward the West.
—
Andrei Kolesnikov,
Foreign Affairs,
9 Feb. 2022
See All Example Sentences for warlike
Recent Examples of Synonyms for warlike
Adjective
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Grey-zone tactics refer to a range of aggressive tactics that vary from navy ship patrols to drone flights, but fall short of direct combat.
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That will be decided in the coming hours, as the Heat remains in aggressive pursuit of a trade for Antetokounmpo.
Adjective
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Fiber-optic, first-person view (FPV) drones have become a key weapon in the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah’s war against Israel in recent months – bypassing Israel’s sophisticated defense systems by duplicating an asymmetric warfare tactic that first emerged in the Russia-Ukraine war.
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Children of the 1960s may recall that even within the militant activist group, Students for Democratic Society (SDS), animus was frequently directed not at the establishment but at fellow antiwar advocates.
Adjective
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The complaint alleges that school officials at Southern Hills Middle School failed to stop two years of antisemitic harassment against an eighth grader even after investigations concluded the student faced a hostile environment.
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Create an internal incident map and begin tagging hostile actions according to the DISARM taxonomy.
Cite this Entry
“Warlike.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/warlike. Accessed 2 Jul. 2026.
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