battle royal

noun

-rȯi-ˈal How to pronounce battle royal (audio)
Definition of battle royalnext
as in dispute
an often noisy or angry expression of differing opinions the sisters had a battle royal over whose turn it was to use the family car

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of battle royal The second came when Uso won a battle royal on Raw last fall and earned the right to face CM Punk for the then-vacant World Heavyweight Championship. — Blake Oestriecher, Forbes.com, 14 June 2026 Another year, another round in the battle royal for streaming licenses. — Eric Vilas-Boas, Vulture, 6 Jan. 2026 During the battle royal last week, Uso eliminated his brother Jimmy, who had been saving him throughout the match. — Fernando Quiles Jr, MSNBC Newsweek, 27 Oct. 2025 Pearce announced that a battle royal would take place later in the night. — Ryan Gaydos, FOXNews.com, 21 Oct. 2025 See All Example Sentences for battle royal
Recent Examples of Synonyms for battle royal
  1. dispute
  2. altercation
  3. quarrel
  4. controversy
  5. fight
  6. disagreement
  7. argument
  8. cross fire
Noun
  • Heemeyer owned a muffler shop in the town and had been engaged in a long-running series of property and zoning disputes with local authorities.
    — Joshua Yaffa, New Yorker, 2 Nov. 2026
  • Having been through the NBA and NFL lockouts of 2011 and other labor disputes, McKenzie recalled just how much of a rush there can be on supplementing income if paychecks don’t resume.
    — Justin Birnbaum, Sportico.com, 2 Nov. 2026
Definition of dispute
Noun
  • On Friday, Benson's family told CBS News Detroit that the incident stemmed from an altercation that happened years prior.
    — DeJanay Booth-Singleton, CBS News, 3 Nov. 2026
  • Wallace was charged in federal court last month on the same day that her successor, Cody Bass, was ordered to spend 10 days in a Douglas County, Nevada, jail for a harassment conviction stemming from an altercation at a brewpub.
    — Sharon Bernstein, Sacbee.com, 29 Oct. 2026
Definition of altercation
Noun
  • In the first incident, a 47-year-old man was stabbed multiple times in the upper body during a quarrel with his killer outside a Bronx homeless shelter on Sedgwick Ave.
    — Rocco Parascandola, New York Daily News, 27 Oct. 2026
  • When a quarrel over an inheritance revives old hostilities, their relationship comes under pressure from greed and treachery in a conflict not of their making.
    — Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 14 Oct. 2026
Definition of quarrel
Noun
  • This year’s ceremony ran into controversy earlier in the year when it was announced that it would be hosted in Abu Dhabi, which has faced criticism for human rights violations.
    — Sam Stone, Bon Appetit Magazine, 5 Nov. 2026
  • As the controversy mounted, the museum called off the exhibition.
    — Alex Greenberger, ARTnews.com, 5 Nov. 2026
Definition of controversy
Noun
  • The suspect's family claims the fight was in retaliation to bullying.
    — Jennifer McLogan, CBS News, 7 Nov. 2026
  • The two took the fight in the crowd for a brief moment where Orton levied his attack on Rhodes with a trash can.
    — Ryan Gaydos OutKick, FOXNews.com, 7 Nov. 2026
Definition of fight
Noun
  • Agreements only hold when the team practices them in real disagreements, again and again.
    — Aaron Levy, Forbes.com, 6 Nov. 2026
  • But what Cunningham was trying to show in this case was belief in a collective humanity rather than focusing on political disagreements post-midterm elections, unlike some of her WNBA peers.
    — Scott Thompson OutKick, FOXNews.com, 6 Nov. 2026
Definition of disagreement
Noun
  • The system produced a mathematical proof that was accepted by Lean, a proof-assistant software used to check the logical correctness of formal mathematical arguments.
    — Neetika Walter, Interesting Engineering, 7 Nov. 2026
  • Dylan’s sneer and Mick Ronson’s guitar jab like fingers in some intense argument, trying to win the pyrrhic victory of a lovers’ quarrel.
    — Grayson Haver Currin, Pitchfork, 7 Nov. 2026
Definition of argument
Noun
  • Brazil's federal police leadership is also at stake, as competing Supreme Court decisions this week removed and then reinstated its director-general, also as part of the cross fire between justices.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 10 Sep. 2026
  • During the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s, tanker ships caught in the cross fire ended up at the bottom of the Persian Gulf, which scared off potential customers.
    — Shane Harris, The Atlantic, 26 Mar. 2026
Definition of cross fire

Browse Nearby Words

battler
battle royal
battlers
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Battle royal.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/battle%20royal. Accessed 13 Nov. 2026.

Copy Citation

More from Merriam-Webster on battle royal

Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about battle royal

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

31 Useful Rhetorical Devices

More Commonly Misspelled Words

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

Great Big List of Beautiful and Useless Words, Vol. 5

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

The Longest Long Words List

The Words of the Week - Nov. 13

Even More Bird Names that Sound Like Insults (and Sometimes Are)
See More

Popular

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

Great Big List of Beautiful and Useless Words, Vol. 5

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
woman sitting on floor holding book in front of her face on pink background
Famous Novels, Last Lines Quiz Needless to say, spoiler alert.
See All