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
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for melees
Noun
-
The curfew came following brawls with police, a racist threat and gunfire that led to a riot in the heart of Milwaukee's Black neighborhood on the city's north side.—
Steven Martinez,
jsonline.com,
3 Sep. 2025 -
Seattle Seahawks pratice erupted into many brawls.—
Matthew Schmidt,
MSNBC Newsweek,
22 Aug. 2025
Noun
-
Still one of the NFL’s nastiest division rivalries, the game was full of skirmishes and a near-costly unnecessary roughness penalty late in the third against the Eagles that put the Cowboys in position to take the lead.—
Dan Gelston,
Chicago Tribune,
5 Sep. 2025
-
Ideological skirmishes over the motives and obligations of Carpenter’s music include both sincere interrogation of its feminism and smirking counteractive reprisals to that scrutiny.—
Craig Jenkins,
Vulture,
3 Sep. 2025
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.
Cite this Entry
“Melees.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/melees. Accessed 18 Sep. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share