Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

belligerent

/bəˈlɪdʒ.ə.ɹənt/

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: 3.04 in modern English

Syllables: bel-li-ger-ent
IPA: /bəˈlɪdʒ.ə.ɹənt/

14

Scrabble Score

11

Letters

4

Syllables

8

Unique Chars

Meaning

adj

Engaged in warfare, warring.

adj

Eager to go to war, warlike.

adj

Of or pertaining to war.

adj

Aggressively hostile, eager to fight.

adj

Acting violently towards others.

adj

noun

A state or other armed participant in warfare

Example Sentences

"And I think the facts are that Beijing is a belligerent bully jealous and envious of what Taiwan has accomplished- mainland China- that's what I get out of all of this."
"England were not allowed to give their chariot the momentum it had a week ago. It was stopped dead in its tracks by a belligerent Springboks defence that simply refused to yield."
""Hmm." "Problem?" "Arianna warned me this might be a challenging shoot. I think she was worried about you being belligerent, but the real issue is turning out to be your specularity. It looks like I'm taking pictures of a flashbang.""
"The UN sent a treaty proposal to the belligerents."

Etymology

From Latin belligerans (“waging war”), present active participle of belligerō (“to wage war”), from belliger (“waging war, warlike”), from bellum (“war”) + -ger (from gerō (“to lead, wage, carry on”)).

Regional Pronunciation

American English: /bəˈlɪdʒ.ə.ɹənt/
British English: /bəˈlɪdʒ.ə.ɹənt/

Inflected Forms

more belligerent (comparative) most belligerent (superlative) belligerents (plural)

Derived Forms

antibelligerent belligerati belligerently cobelligerent interbelligerent nonbelligerent unbelligerent

Phrases

non-belligerent

Frequently Paired Words

bellicose belligerence belligerency warmonger

Synonyms

aggressive antagonistic bellicose combative contentious pugnacious quarrelsome truculent

Antonyms

conciliatory friendly peaceful

Rhymes With

refrigerant

Questions

How do you pronounce belligerent?: The recorded pronunciation is /bəˈlɪdʒ.ə.ɹənt/.
What does belligerent mean?: Engaged in warfare, warring.
Where does belligerent come from?: From Latin belligerans (“waging war”), present active participle of belligerō (“to wage war”), from belliger (“waging war, warlike”), from bellum (“war”) + -ger (from gerō (“to lead, wage, carry on”)).

How to pronounce belligerent

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