gladiator
/ˈɡlædiˌeɪ̯tə/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.19 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
4
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A person (professional or slave) who entertained the public by engaging in mortal combat with another, or with a wild animal.
noun
A disputant in a public controversy or debate.
noun
noun
Synonym of heelwalker (“Any of the order Mantophasmatodea of carnivorous, wingless insects that superficially resemble a cross between praying mantises and phasmids.”).
verb
To fight as entertainment for others.
verb
To act aggressively toward others.
Example Sentences
- "My mother prepared herself for the evening with the same somber deliberateness of the gladiators in Spartacus."
- "And it's because something of the mundanely manual still adheres to darts that the players' heroic walk of honour from the green room to the oche is so incongruous. The fanfare begins, the strobes go wild, the crowds roar, hostesses wearing the sort of tinsel dresses that drove me crazy when I was eighteen escort the gladiator into the arena, only he's not a gladiator, he's a plumber."
- "When the dance was done there was the cock-fight, or rather a century of cock-fights, to be reckoned with. For two hundred of these luckless creatures 'gladiatored' bravely, while an appreciative audience held matting up to its chin to keep from being bespattered with blood."
- "The guards made me fight other prisoners for their own amusement. It was called gladiatoring."
- "I played very well as was evidenced in that I was the only participant in the entire six or seven days of wind gladiatoring who received a standing ovation from the orchestra, no less."
- "It's himself gladiatoring on the harmonium."
Etymology
Origin
- Source language: Latin
Word Breakdown
- Root: gladiātor
Regional Pronunciation
- British English: /ˈɡlædiˌeɪ̯tə/