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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."
Synonyms
Examples of melee in a Sentence
Teresa Watanabe, Los Angeles Times, 5 May 2024
The 11 Italian immigrants in Milwaukee on trial in 1917 after two people were killed in a chaotic melee in Bay View have no one to tell their stories — not even their defense attorney, who never spoke to them individually.
—Jim Higgins, Journal Sentinel, 2 May 2024
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These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'melee.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Melee.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/melee. Accessed 9 May. 2024.
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melee
noun
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