combative

adjective

com·​bat·​ive kəm-ˈba-tiv 

: marked by eagerness to fight or contend

combatively adverb

combativeness noun

Synonyms

• aggressive
• militant
• hostile
• contentious
• confrontational
• assaultive

Examples of combative in a Sentence

When the police tried to arrest him, he became combative.

channeling his naturally combative impulses into sports

Recent Examples on the Web

Despite traveling to Washington with a coalition of European leaders, Zelensky will initially face Trump alone, joined only by Vice President JD Vance, who played a combative role in their last meeting. —Hannah Parry amanda Castro andrew Stanton, MSNBC Newsweek, 18 Aug. 2025

Rare archival footage, home movies and candid interviews paint a fuller, more complicated picture of the Piano Man — brilliant, driven, combative, sometimes conflicted and ultimately enduring. —Michele Amabile Angermiller, HollywoodReporter, 18 July 2025

By approaching Trump with the right mix of respect and self-assuredness, Carney has shifted the dynamic between the two leaders from combative to collaborative. —Lila MacLellan, Fortune, 16 July 2025

Of course, the increasingly partisan, combative, and at times, chaotic atmosphere had infiltrated the modern Congress before Johnson or his Senate counterpart, Majority Leader John Thune, took the gavel. —Savannah Kuchar, USA Today, 3 Aug. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1826, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

combative

adjective

com·​bat·​ive kəm-ˈbat-iv 

: eager to fight : pugnacious

combativeness noun