Synonym Chooser

How is the word pugnacious distinct from other similar adjectives?

Some common synonyms of pugnacious are bellicose, belligerent, contentious, and quarrelsome. While all these words mean "having an aggressive or fighting attitude," pugnacious suggests a disposition that takes pleasure in personal combat.

a pugnacious gangster

In what contexts can bellicose take the place of pugnacious?

The synonyms bellicose and pugnacious are sometimes interchangeable, but bellicose suggests a disposition to fight.

a drunk in a bellicose mood

When would belligerent be a good substitute for pugnacious?

While the synonyms belligerent and pugnacious are close in meaning, belligerent often implies being actually at war or engaged in hostilities.

belligerent nations

Where would contentious be a reasonable alternative to pugnacious?

Although the words contentious and pugnacious have much in common, contentious implies perverse and irritating fondness for arguing and quarreling.

wearied by his contentious disposition

When is it sensible to use quarrelsome instead of pugnacious?

The meanings of quarrelsome and pugnacious largely overlap; however, quarrelsome stresses an ill-natured readiness to fight without good cause.

the heat made us all quarrelsome

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 pugnacious The Godfather director steals the show here as an energetic, pugnacious and visionary circus ringleader who put his money where his mouth was for a project that wound up flopping critically and commercially. Jordan Mintzer, HollywoodReporter, 28 Aug. 2025 Some Democrats may thrill each time Newsom delivers one of his pugnacious pronouncements. Mark Barabak, Mercury News, 19 July 2025 Keefe was an Irish Republican from Boston, the son of a meat cutter, who made his name in New Haven as a pugnacious defender of the oppressed from their oppressors. Edmund H. Mahony, Hartford Courant, 11 July 2025 Netanyahu’s pugnacious rhetoric, his growing reliance on the war and on his hard-right allies for his political survival, and the IDF’s conduct on the ground all suggest a preference for fighting on. Max Rodenbeck, Foreign Affairs, 25 June 2025 See All Example Sentences for pugnacious
Recent Examples of Synonyms for pugnacious
Adjective
  • Cynics may not believe the aggressive talk from the company.
    Max Tani, semafor.com, 28 Sep. 2025
  • And the Buckeyes are working through some kinks in an offense that turns from conservative to aggressive in random segments of the game.
    Cameron Teague Robinson, New York Times, 28 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • As such, the political and militant body – which has governed the territory since June 2007 – will need to be in a desperate situation to accept the terms.
    Asher Kaufman, The Conversation, 30 Sep. 2025
  • Trump’s peace plan has backed Hamas into a corner, leaving the militant group to face an existential dilemma.
    Oren Liebermann, CNN Money, 30 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • Students from the kingdom are increasingly turning away from US universities in particular, put off by a mix of hostile immigration policies, concerns over gun violence, and the kingdom’s own push to grow its domestic education sector.
    Manal Albarakati, semafor.com, 26 Sep. 2025
  • The move to social media and algorithmic media was really a move toward a style of political communication that is somewhat hostile to the liberal project and the deliberative, open-minded, thoughtful, on-the-one-hand-on-the-other-hand mode of discourse that Obama is good at.
    David Remnick, New Yorker, 26 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • China began conducting the contentious patrols after a February 2024 accident in which two Chinese fishermen drowned near Kinmen while fleeing from Taiwan’s coast guard.
    Micah McCartney, MSNBC Newsweek, 1 Oct. 2025
  • Appointing James Bunce as performance director, having worked with him before at Monaco, was arguably the best decision of Mitchell’s short — and contentious — tenure.
    George Caulkin, New York Times, 1 Oct. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Pugnacious.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pugnacious. Accessed 3 Oct. 2025.

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