pugnacious
/pʌɡˈneɪ.ʃəs/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.14 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
3
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Naturally aggressive or hostile; combative; belligerent; bellicose.
Example Sentences
- "Not that the doctor was a bully, or even pugnacious, in the usual sense of the word; he had no disposition to provoke a fight, no propense love of quarrelling."
- "As he made the demand he spat out a mouthful of blood and teeth and shoved his pugnacious face close to Oofty-Oofty."
- "In the face of bad news Churchill normally became even more pugnacious, always wanting to respond to defeat by going on the attack."
- "[I]n the 575 days since [Oscar] Pistorius shot dead his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, there has been an unseemly scramble to construct revisionist histories, to identify evidence beneath that placid exterior of a pugnacious, hair-trigger personality."
- "Of course the Johnston swings around to engage the entire flotilla, and, despite taking several more hits, Johnston successfully forces away the first two ships, which leads to the entire squadron taking a detour to avoid the single pugnacious ship."
- "In a speech this weekend, Ms. Le Pen suggested that her “pugnacious” young protégé, Jordan Bardella, who is one of the most popular politicians in France, was ready to become prime minister."
Etymology
From the stem of Latin pugnāx + -ous, from pugnō (“to fight”), from pugnus (“fist”). By surface analysis, Latin pugn- + -acious.
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /pʌɡˈneɪ.ʃəs/
- British English: /pʌɡˈneɪ.ʃəs/
Inflected Forms
more pugnacious (comparative)
most pugnacious (superlative)