battle royal

\ -rȯi-ˈal

How to pronounce battle royal (audio)

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variants: or battle royale

plural battles royal or battle royals or battles royale or battle royales

Definition of battle royal

1a : a fight participated in by more than two combatants especially : one in which the last fighter in the ring or the last fighter standing is declared the winner

b : a violent struggle

2 : a heated dispute

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Examples of battle royal in a Sentence

the dysfunctional couple next door had another one of their battles royal last night

Recent Examples on the Web This past summer, Popeyes launched a battle royal with its first nationwide chicken sandwich offering, which challenged Chick-fil-A's supremacy and led to Wendy's throwing some shade on Chick-fil-A, too. — Mike Snider, USA TODAY, "Another chicken sandwich clash? McDonald's is making two new dishes available nationwide," 28 Jan. 2020 Roman Reigns was WWE World Heavyweight Champion at the 2016 Royal Rumble and entered the battle royal as first. — Troy L. Smith, cleveland, "WWE calls Brock Lesnar Royal Rumble plan unprecedented, but it’s not," 7 Jan. 2020 The men’s battle royal at Double or Nothing struggled to tell multiple stories, which is a byproduct of the nature of these matches—there is simply too much going on at once. — Justin Barrasso, SI.com, "The Five Biggest Questions Ahead of AEW ‘All Out’," 30 Aug. 2019 With a governing board engaged in a battle royal that deepens every week and a president who might or might not have been fired, Wayne State is in turmoil. — David Jesse, Detroit Free Press, "Wayne State students want board to stop fighting and start fixing real problems," 15 Nov. 2019 Thursday’s Democratic debate was billed as a kind of battle royal. — Alex Shephard, The New Republic, "Second Tier in Top Form at Democratic Debate," 13 Sep. 2019 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has now gone free-to-play, and with that change developers Valve and Hidden Path Entertainment have added a new battle royal game mode. — Shannon Liao, The Verge, "Counter-Strike: GO adds new battle royale mode and goes free-to-play," 6 Dec. 2018 But a battle royal has to have other opponents — in this case, my brother, who didn't like the price tag on the new bed, a four-poster totally upholstered, trimmed, and gussied up. — Christine Pittel, House Beautiful, "Ann Pyne on Designing a Happy and Fun Southampton Home," 2 Oct. 2012 The match will be a Royal Rumble format (with wrestlers entering at set intervals of time) rather than a battle royal format (with all the wrestlers beginning in the ring at the same time). — Dan Gartland, SI.com, "Full List of Greatest Royal Rumble Match Participants," 26 Apr. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'battle royal.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Dictionary Entries near battle royal

battle position

battleship gray

Statistics for battle royal

Last Updated

6 Feb 2020

Cite this Entry

“Battle royal.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/battle%20royal. Accessed 18 Feb. 2020.

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