combat

16th century, borrowed from Middle French combat, deverbal from Old French combatre, from Vulgar Latin *combattere, from Latin com- (“with”) + battuere (“to beat, strike”).

• Noun:
  • (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒmˌbæt/, (obsolete) /ˈkʌmˌbæt/^[1]
  • (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑmˌbæt/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Verb:
  • (UK) IPA^(key): /kəmˈbæt/, /ˈkɒmˌbæt/, (obsolete) /ˈkʌmˌbæt/^[1]
  • (US) IPA^(key): /kəmˈbæt/, /ˈkɑmˌbæt/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -æt

combat (countable and uncountable, plural combats)

1. A battle, a fight (often one in which weapons are used).
   • 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter VIII, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:

     "My tastes," he said, still smiling, "incline me to the garishly sunlit side of this planet." And, to tease her and arouse her to combat: "I prefer a farandole to a nocturne; I'd rather have a painting than an etching; Mr. Whistler bores me with his monochromatic mud; I don't like dull colours, dull sounds, dull intellects; […]."

   • 1950 September 1, Harry S. Truman, 0:56 from the start, in MP72-73 Korea and World Peace: President Truman Reports to the People‎^[2], Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives Identifier: 595162:

     In less than eight weeks, five divisions of United States troops have moved into combat, some of them from bases more than 6,000 miles away. More men are on the way. Fighting in difficult country under every kind of hardship, American troops have held back overwhelming numbers of the communist invaders.

   • 2012 March, William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter, “The British Longitude Act Reconsidered”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 87:

     Conditions were horrendous aboard most British naval vessels at the time. Scurvy and other diseases ran rampant, killing more seamen each year than all other causes combined, including combat.

2. a struggle for victory

combat (third-person singular simple present combats, present participle combatting or combating, simple past and past participle combatted or combated)

1. (transitive) To fight; to struggle against.

   It has proven very difficult to combat drug addiction.

   • 2025 March 10, Karina Tsui and Elizabeth Wolfe, “Department of Education investigating 60 colleges and universities over antisemitism claims”, in CNN‎^[3]:

     President Donald Trump’s administration has made combating what it considers anti-Israel and antisemitic movements on college campuses a priority.
     He signed an executive order during his second week in office to “combat antisemitism” in schools and on university campuses, and on February 3 announced the creation of a multiagency task force to carry out the mandate.

2. (intransitive) To fight (with); to struggle for victory (against).
   • 1671, John Milton, Samson Agonistes:

     To combat with a blind man I disdain.

• M.B. coat, tombac

• IPA^(key): (Central) [kumˈbat]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic, Valencia) [komˈbat]
• Rhymes: -at

Deverbal from combatre. First attested in 1490.^[1]

combat m (plural combats)

1. combat

combat

1. inflection of combatre:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

• “combat”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “combat” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “combat” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

From combattre.

• IPA^(key): /kɔ̃.ba/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Homophone: combats

combat m (plural combats)

1. combat (hostile interaction)
2. (figuratively) combat (contest; competition)
3. (in the plural) battle; military combat

combat

1. third-person singular present indicative of combattre

• “combat”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

combat m (plural combats)

1. (Jersey) combat

• IPA^(key): [komˈbat]

combat

1. inflection of combate:
   1. first-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. third-person plural present indicative