Synonyms of militance

militance

noun

ˈmi-lə-tən(t)s 

as in aggression

an inclination to fight or quarrel

the level of militance varied significantly among the activist groups

Synonyms & Similar Words

• aggression
• aggressiveness
• hostility
• militancy
• defiance
• combativeness
• pugnacity
• fight
• assaultiveness
• bellicosity
• belligerence
• belligerency
• contentiousness
• feistiness
• truculence
• scrappiness
• quarrelsomeness
• disputatiousness
• antagonism
• militantness
• fierceness
• unfriendliness
• militarism
• imperialism
• irritability
• chip on one's shoulder
• jingoism
• irritableness
• fractiousness
• hyperaggressiveness
• peevishness
• crossness
• rudeness
• irascibility
• testiness
• disagreeableness
• orneriness
• surliness
• petulance
• querulousness
• crankiness
• fretfulness
• grouchiness
• acidity
• biliousness
• grumpiness
• captiousness
• pettishness
• waspishness
• huffiness
• irascibleness

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• pacifism
• nonaggression
• friendliness
• antimilitarism
• benevolence
• sociability
• cordiality
• gentleness
• geniality
• amiability
• graciousness
• pleasantness
• affability
• anti-imperialism
• kindliness
• mildness
• antiaggression
• amicability
• complaisance
• amenability
• placability

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of militance

President Penn and her husband Todd (Whitford) get to throw down now and then, as a husband who already feels emasculated has to sit and watch his wife recede into bitter militance. — Ben Travers, IndieWire, 15 Oct. 2026

Activists fused mourning and militance, fighting against indifference to the lives of gay men and, later, people of color and intravenous drug users. — Robert W. Snyder, New York Daily News, 6 Sep. 2026

The flamboyance, militance, and violence of the 1960s left might not have worked right away, after all. — Samuel Goldman, The Week, 6 Jan. 2022

The human relationship to fire on this specific piece of land was not always one of fear, anxiety, and militance. — Manjula Martin, The New Yorker, 30 Sep. 2021

As spring turned to summer and the pandemic seemed to be at its end, the Haredim reunited, bonded at first by impatience with public-health guidelines and then by a growing militance about the central government’s response. — New York Times, 25 Feb. 2021

That militance was frowned upon by Isaacson and others who favored a civilized political approach. — BostonGlobe.com, 26 Dec. 2019

Love shows up, even in power struggles where Queen’s militance clashes with Slim’s attempts at being level headed. — Jasmine Grant, Essence, 3 Dec. 2019

The Great Depression and America’s 1941 entry into WWII posed some complicated challenges to this legacy, as labor militance took a back seat at times of national emergency. — Kim Kelly, The New Republic, 27 Sep. 2019