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pugnacious

UK/pʌɡˈneɪ.ʃəs/US/pʌɡˈneɪ.ʃəs/
adjectiveC2Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #14,820 of 15,258leans written

Pugnacious means always ready for a fight. A pugnacious style, pugnacious in debate, a pugnacious little dog.

It is used far more of argument than of violence, so a pugnacious speaker enjoys the contest. The Latin behind it is a fist, which keeps the picture literal.

Definitions of pugnacious

  1. 1adjectivepugnaciousAlways ready for a fight.C2

    “He was pugnacious in debate and never once conceded a point.”

pugnacious is a quality.

Where it comes from

Latin pugnax comes from pugnare, to fight, from pugnus, a fist.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *pewǵ-

  2. English, today

    pugnacious

Built from

  • pugnō · Latin — to fight
  • pugnus · Latin — fist

From the stem of pugnāx + ous, from pugnō (“to fight”), from pugnus (“fist”). by surface analysis, pugn- + -acious.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

pugnacious in the wild

  • A tall, curly-haired all-rounder, Tremlett had a whippy fast-medium bowling action that moved the ball off the pitch and was a pugnacious right-handed batsman, strong at driving.

    Maurice Tremlett

  • The name "pugil stick" is a neologism from the Latin noun pugnus (fist), the source for other English words such as "pugilist" (boxer) and "pugnacious" (eager to fight).

    Pugil stick

  • Prolific and pugnacious, Witney began directing while still in his 20s, and continued working until 1982.

    William Witney

  • Several Amatitlania species are regularly kept in aquariums, especially the convict cichlids, which are aggressively territorial, but some others in the genus are less pugnacious.

    Amatitlania

  • Tous was a wise and brave man but also proud and pugnacious.

    Tous son of Nowzar

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the pugnō family

impugnpugnacious

pugnacious — used about once every 81,824 pages · #14,820 · point at the bar for the others