Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Pugnacious |
PugnaciousAdjective1. Tough and callous by virtue of experience. 2. Ready and able to resort to force or violence; "pugnacious spirits...lamented that there was so little prospect of an exhilarating disturbance"- Herman Melville; "they were rough and determined fighting men". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "pugnacious" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1588. (references) |
Etymology: Pugnacious \Pug*na"cious\, adjective. [Latin expression pugnax, -acis, from pugnare to fight. Compare to Pugilism, Fist.]. (Websters 1913) |
Synonyms: PugnaciousSynonyms: hard-bitten (adj), hard-boiled (adj), rough (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Contention | Competitive, rival; belligerent; contentious, combative, bellicose, unpeaceful; warlike; quarrelsome; pugnacious; pugilistic, gladiatorial; palestric, palestrical. |
Courage | Fierce, savage; pugnacious; (bellicose). |
Irascibility | Querulous, captious, moodish; quarrelsome, contentious, disputatious; pugnacious; (bellicose); cantankerous, exceptious; restiff; (perverse) a; churlish; (discourteous). |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Pugnacious |
| English words defined with "pugnacious": Contentious jurisdiction ♦ Eretmochelys imbricata ♦ Fighting fish ♦ hawkbill, hawksbill, hawksbill turtle ♦ prickleback, pugnaciously ♦ scrappiness, stickleback ♦ tortoiseshell turtle. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "pugnacious": Chauvin ♦ Slate One. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "pugnacious": Pygmy. (references) |
| Domain | Title |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Pugnacious" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Pugnacious" is used about 49 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 100% | 49 | 48,677 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expression using "pugnacious": bellicose combative pugnacious scrappy truculent. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "pugnacious": pugnacious-looking. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
pugnacious | 7 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "pugnacious"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | مولع بالقتال (bellicose, belligerent, combatant, combative, truculent), مولع بالخصام, مشاكس (aggressive, bitchy, cantankerous, contentious, currish, dissentious, fresh, obstreperous, ornery, petulant, quarrelsome, rowdy, sorehead, termagant, truculent). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | побойнически (ruffianly, truculent). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | ستیزه گر (Pugilist), جنگجو (Bellicose, Belligerent, Comatant, Martial, Warrior). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | pugnace, batailleur. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | kampflustig (bellicose, belligerent, combative, pugnaciously), kämpferisch (aggressive, attacking, militant, pugnaciously). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | εριστικόσ (combative, quarrelsome, rowdy, termagant, vixenish). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | תוקפ י (aggressive, bellicose, obsidional, truculent), או"ב מלחמ" (bellicose, belligerent), או"ב מ"ון (quarrelsome). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | harcias (bellicose, combative, manful, martial, militant, military, soldierlike, to be game, warlike), verekedő (basher, brawling, bully, fighter, rowdy, to square one's elbows), házsártos (cranky, cross-grained, frumpish, grousing, gruff, quarrelsome, rambunctious, scold, shrewd, shrewish, termagant, vixenish), összeférhetetlen (churlish, ill natured, incompatible, inconsonant, irreconcilable, pugnaciousness, pugnacity). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | battagliero (combative, fighting, warlike). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | troddanagh (campaigner, combatant, combative, fighting, quarreller, quarrelsome), streeuailtagh (antagonist, antagonistic, bickerer, conflicting, contentious, contentious person, contestant, discordant, disputant, opponent), bwoaltagh (assailable). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | ugnaciouspay pugnaz, pronto a lutar, briguento (cantankerous, quarrelsome, termagant), brigão (bantam, quarrelsome, tough), belicoso (bellicose, martial, warlike). (various references) combativ (combative, fighting), certãreţ (brawler, cantankerous, captious, discordant, eristic, factious, frumpish, peevish, quarrelsome, snappy), bãtãios (combative). (various references) драчливый (combative, quarrelsome, scrappy). (various references) ratoboran (bellicose, belligerent, combative, militant, truculent, warlike). (various references) belicoso (bellicose, militant, warlike, warring). (various references) stridslysten (bellicose, combative, contentious, controversial, disputatious, militant, quarrelsome, scrappy, truculent, warlike). (various references) kavgacı (aggressive, bellicose, belligerent, combatant, combative, contentious, disagreeable, disputatious, fighter, litigious, militant, quarrelsome, ruffian, scrappy, spoiling for a fight, turbulent, warlike, wrangler), hırçın (acrimonious, cantankerous, combative, gruff, ill tempered, irritable, peeved, peevish, pettish, shrewish, sour, tetchy, vinegary, vixenish). (various references) сварливий (angular, cantankerous, contentious, currish, doggish, frumpish, grumpy, ill tempered, ill-conditioned, peevish, quarreling, quarrelling, quarrelsome, shrewish, termagant, ugly), забіякуватий (battailous). (various references) thích đánh nhau (bellicose, scrappy, termagant), hay gây gỗ (bellicose, contentious). (various references) ymladdgar (bellicose, warlike). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | bellatorius. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "pugnacious": pugnaciously, pugnaciousness, pugnaciousnesses. (additional references) | |
| |
"Pugnacious" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Pangasius, pignacious, pugnacaious, Pugnacium, pugnaciuos, pugnacius, pugnacoius, pugnactious, pugnatious, pugnocious, pungnacious. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "pugnacious" (pronounced pugna"shus) |
| 4 | -a" sh u s | rapacious. |
| 3 | -sh u s | ambitious, anxious, atrocious, audacious, auspicious, capacious, capricious, cautious, conscientious, conscious, contentious, delicious, efficacious, expeditious, facetious, factitious, fallacious, ferocious, fictitious, flirtatious, fractious, gracious, hellacious, herbaceous, inauspicious, infectious, injudicious, judicious, loquacious, luscious, malicious, nauseous, noxious, nutritious, obnoxious, ostentatious, overambitious, pernicious, precious, precocious, predaceous, pretentious, propitious, rambunctious, repetitious, salacious, sebaceous, seditious, semiprecious, spacious, specious, subconscious, superstitious, surreptitious, suspicious, tenacious, tendentious, unconscious, unpretentious, vexatious, vicious, vivacious, voracious. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-c-g-i-n-o-p-s-u-u" | |
-3 letters: acinous, causing, congius, copings, couping, pausing, saucing, scaping, scoping, soaping, souping, spacing. | |
-4 letters: acinus, agonic, capons, casing, casino, coigns, congas, coping, cosign, cousin, gascon, gipons, guacos, guanos, incogs, pacing, panics, pianos, pignus, pingos, posing, spuing, uncaps, unguis. | |
-5 letters: acing, agios, agons, aping, aspic, cains, canso, capon, capos, cions, coign, coins, conga, conus, coups. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-c-g-i-n-o-p-s-u-u" | |
+2 letters: pugnaciously. | |
+4 letters: pugnaciousness. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Slideshow 6. Usage Frequency 7. Expressions 8. Expressions: Internet | 9. Translations: Modern 10. Translations: Ancient 11. Derivations 12. Rhymes | 13. Anagrams 14. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
