Word of the Day:

May 3, 2024

melee

noun MAY-lay

What it Means

Melee refers to a confused fight or struggle, especially one involving hand-to-hand combat.

// What started as a verbal disagreement at the football game soon turned into a general melee involving scores of spectators.

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Melee in Context

"The battle scenes are a Hollywood mishmash of medieval melees, meaningless cannonades, and World War I-style infantry advances." — Franz-Stefan Gady, Foreign Policy, 2 Dec. 2023

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Did You Know?

English has no shortage of words for confused and noisy fights, some (fray, brawl, scrap) more common than others (donnybrook, fracas). Melee tends to be encountered more often in written rather than spoken English, but it is far from obscure, and has seen increasing use especially in the context of video games featuring some form of hand-to-hand combat. Such games allow players to mix it up with all manner of rivals and baddies from the comfort and safety of their home, with mix being an especially apt word alongside melee: the latter comes from the French word mêlée, which in turn comes from the Old French verb mesler, meaning "to mix."