melee
/ˈmeɪˌleɪ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.22 in modern English
7
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
2
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A battle fought at close range, (especially) one not involving ranged weapons; hand-to-hand combat; brawling.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
A cavalry exercise in which two groups of riders try to cut paper plumes off the helmets of their opponents, the contest continuing until no member of one group retains his plume.
Countable; Uncountable
verb
To physically hit in close quarters, as opposed to shooting, blowing up, or other ranged means of damage. Often refers to the usage of a hand-to-hand weapon.
Slang
Example Sentences
- "Honestly, a lot of what this episode did right had more to do with the scenes that surrounded the enormous melee than those hyper-edited clashes of swords."
- "The attack also afforded Helena to a front-seat view of literal air-to-air melee combat, as one Wildcat pilot of the Cactus Air Force, who was swooping in to help break up the attack, found himself out of machine-gun ammo; instead, he dropped his landing gear, positioned himself above the nearest bomber, and begun beating it to death, in midair, using his landing gear as clubs. After a bit of evasive action that the fighter easily kept up with, the repeated slamming broke something important, and the bomber spiralled down into the sea."
- "The ball did not appear to cross the line, a view supported by television replays as Blues captain John Terry also joined the melee, but referee Atkinson awarded the goal - to the obvious anger of Spurs and their management team."
- "Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver said Tuesday that the federal assault charges filed against her a day earlier related to a chaotic melee outside an Immigration Customs and Enforcement detention facility are “absurd.”"
- "Within this melee of intersections between English and Cantonese, the students, being themselves bilingually fluent, were able to navigate with perfect ease in communicative contexts where the provenance of a certain term or expression matters little."
- "A melee weapon is used to attack a target within 5 feet of you, whereas a ranged weapon is used to attack a target at a distance."
Etymology
Origin
- Source language: Old French
Word Breakdown
- Root: *meyḱ-, meslee, misceō
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈmeɪˌleɪ/
- British English: /ˈmɛˌleɪ/