as in brawls
a rough and often noisy fight usually involving several people
a verbal disagreement at the football game soon turned into a general melee involving scores of spectators
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Recent Examples of melees
There was a bunch of melees on the ice today.
—
Ryan Gaydos, FOXNews.com, 22 Apr. 2026
College basketball games recently have turned into full-contact melees after hard fouls on the court.
—Charles Selle, Chicago Tribune, 23 Feb. 2026
Ryan Gaydos, FOXNews.com, 22 Apr. 2026
College basketball games recently have turned into full-contact melees after hard fouls on the court.
—Charles Selle, Chicago Tribune, 23 Feb. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for melees
Noun
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Bond's relative lack of experience and finesse also feeds into the chaos of all-out brawls.—
Jordan Minor,
PC Magazine,
29 May 2026
-
Viral kindergarten graduation brawls are back.—
Sean Joseph OutKick,
FOXNews.com,
26 May 2026
Noun
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Outside the facility’s gates, there have been clashes between federal immigration officials and demonstrators.—
Nicole Fallert,
USA Today,
1 June 2026
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Days of protests outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Newark, New Jersey, have led to clashes between demonstrators and officers and a handful of arrests.—
Chris Boyette,
CNN Money,
1 June 2026
Cite this Entry
“Melees.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/melees. Accessed 5 Jun. 2026.
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