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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
Kevin Grasha, The Enquirer, 2 July 2025
Another teen girl was stabbed, her lung punctured, during the melee.
—Rebecca White, New York Daily News, 30 June 2025
This killer combo will make both racking up kills in your next 5v5 melee and productivity tasks like finishing up that last essay before break a breeze.
—Jade Chung-Lee, PC Magazine, 16 June 2025
The melee took place at the Trousdale Turner Correctional Center, a medium-security prison for men.
—Natalie Neysa Alund, USA Today, 10 June 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 12 Jul. 2025.
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melee
noun
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