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Melee Has French Roots
English has no shortage of words for confused and noisy fights, some (fray, brawl, scrap) more common than others (donnybrook, fracas). Melee tends to be encountered more often in written rather than spoken English, but it is far from obscure, and has seen increasing use especially in the context of video games featuring some form of hand-to-hand combat. Such games allow players to mix it up with all manner of rivals and baddies from the comfort and safety of their home, with mix being an especially apt word alongside melee: the latter comes from the French word mêlée, which in turn comes from the Old French verb mesler, meaning "to mix."
Examples of melee in a Sentence
Louis Casiano , Tessa Hoyos, FOXNews.com, 12 Dec. 2025
Larkin looked around the pits, at the melee of machines, racers, and mechanics, then back at Ricard.
—Jeff Spry, Space.com, 10 Dec. 2025
Islanders forward Marc Gatcomb’s stick actually get stuck inside Blackwood’s leg pads during the melee.
—Corey Masisak, Denver Post, 5 Dec. 2025
But the brother, Christian Duran, 20, and his girlfriend, Allana Nevaeh Murillo, 21, were already facing charges stemming from a schoolyard melee two years ago.
—Robert Salonga, Mercury News, 5 Dec. 2025
See All Example Sentences for melee
Cite this Entry
“Melee.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/melee. Accessed 18 Dec. 2025.
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melee
noun
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