combatant

English

Etymology

Inherited from late Middle English combataunt, from Middle French combatant. By surface analysis, combat +‎ -ant. Doublet of combattant.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒm.bə.tənt/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (US, Canada) IPA^(key): /kəmˈbæ.tənt/, /ˈkɑm.bə.tənt/

Noun

combatant (plural combatants)

1. A person engaged in combat, often armed.

   Gladiators were combatants who fought to the death to entertain the public.

   • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:

     Come hither, you that would be combatants:
     Henceforth I charge you, as you love our favour,
     Quite to forget this quarrel and the cause.

   • 1789, Olaudah Equiano, chapter 3, in The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano‎^[1], volume 1, London: for the author, page 112:

     On the passage, one day, for the diversion of those gentlemen, all the boys were called on the quarter deck, and were paired proportionably, and then made to fight; after which the gentlemen gave the combatants from five to nine shillings each.

   • 1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC:

     If any combatant was struck down, and unable to recover his feet, his squire or page might enter the lists, and drag his master out of the press; but in that case the knight was adjudged vanquished […]

   • 1992, Naguib Mahfouz, chapter 48, in William M. Hutchins, Angele Botros Samaan, transl., Sugar Street‎^[2], New York: Anchor Books, published 1993, page 271:

     “ […] Don’t you realize that alcohol is an essential part of heroism? The combatant and the drunkard are brothers, you genius.”

   • 2025 April 24, Anna Silman, “Now comes the ‘womanosphere’: the anti-feminist media telling women to be thin, fertile and Republican”, in The Guardian‎^[3], →ISSN:

     The leading voices of the womanosphere are using a similar strategy. As Brittany Hugoboom put it in an op–ed for the rightwing outlet Quillette: “Conservatives will never win if they imagine themselves as combatants atop defensive battlements, hurling abuse on the mass media. We need to involve ourselves in the creation of pop culture.”

Synonyms

• battler
• fighter

Derived terms

• contractor combatant
• enemy combatant
• illegal combatant
• non-combatant, noncombatant
• surface combatant

Translations

person engaged in combat, often armed

• Albanian: luftëtar (sq) m
• Arabic: مُقَاتِل m (muqātil)
• Armenian: մարտիկ (hy) (martik)
• Belarusian: бае́ц m (bajéc), во́ін m (vóin), камбата́нт m (kambatánt), камбата́нтка f (kambatántka)
• Bulgarian: бое́ц (bg) m (boéc), во́ин (bg) m (vóin), войни́к (bg) m (vojník)
• Catalan: combatent (ca) m or f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 戰鬥員 / 战斗员 (zhàndǒuyuán)

• Czech: bojovník (cs) m, bojovnice (cs) f
• Danish: kombattant c
• Esperanto: batalanto, batalantino (female)
• Estonian: võitleja, sõdija
• French: combattant (fr) m, combattante (fr) f
• Georgian: მებრძოლი (mebrʒoli)
• German: Kämpfer (de) m, Kämpferin (de) f, Bekämpfer m, Bekämpferin f, Kombattant (de) m, Kombattantin (de) f
• Greek: μαχητής (el) m (machitís), πολεμιστής (el) m (polemistís)
• Hindi: योद्धा (hi) m (yoddhā), जंगजू (hi) m (jaṅgjū)
• Ido: kombatanto (io)
• Italian: combattente (it) m or f
• Japanese: 戦闘員 (ja) (せんとういん, sentōin)
• Korean: 전투원(戰鬪員) (ko) (jeontuwon)
• Latin: proeliātor m
• Latvian: cīnītājs m, cīnītāja f
• Lithuanian: kovotojas m, kovotoja f
• Macedonian: борец (mk) m (borec)
• Norman: combattant m, combattante f
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: kombattant m

  Nynorsk: kombattant m

• Old Czech: bojař m
• Ottoman Turkish: صاواشجی (savaşcı)
• Persian: رزمنده (fa) (razmande), محارب (fa) (mohâreb), مبارز (fa) (mobârez), جنگجو (fa) (jangju)
• Polish: kombatant (pl) m, kombatantka f, bojownik (pl) m, bojowniczka (pl) f
• Portuguese: combatente (pt) m or f
• Romanian: combatant (ro) m, combatantă f
• Russian: бое́ц (ru) m (bojéc), во́ин (ru) m (vóin), комбата́нт (ru) m (kombatánt), комбата́нтка f (kombatántka)
• Serbo-Croatian: borac (sh) m, bojovnik (sh) m
• Slovak: bojovník (sk) m, bojovníca f
• Slovene: borec (sl) m, borka f, bojevnik m, bojevnica f
• Spanish: combatiente (es) m or f
• Swedish: kombattant (sv) c
• Tajik: мубориз (muboriz)
• Ukrainian: боє́ць (uk) m (bojécʹ), во́їн m (vójin), комбата́нт m (kombatánt), комбата́нтка f (kombatántka)
• Urdu: جَن٘گجُو m (jangjū)
• Uzbek: jangchi (uz)

Adjective

combatant (comparative more combatant, superlative most combatant)

1. Contending; disposed to contend.
   • 1641, Ben Jonson, The Magnetic Lady‎^[4], New York: Henry Holt, published 1914, act III, scene 5, page 65:

     Their valours are not yet so combatant,
     Or truly antagonistick, as to fight;

2. Involving combat.
   • 1921, John Dos Passos, Three Soldiers‎^[5], New York: Modern Library, published 1932, Part Two, Chapter 1, p. 71:

     He wished he were in a combatant service; he wanted to fight, fight.

3. Alternative form of combattant (“in heraldry: in a fighting position”)
   • 1846, William Newton, Display of Heraldry, page 84:

     Or, two lions combatant gules, armed and langued (that is, claws and tongue) azure, is borne by the name of Wycombe; Azure , two lions combatant or, by the name of Carter; Azure , two lions combatant guardant argent, by  […]

Derived terms

• countercombatant

Middle French

Verb

combatant (feminine singular combatante, masculine plural combatans, feminine plural combatantes)

1. present participle of combatre
2. (may be preceded by en, invariable) gerund of combatre

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French combattant.

Adjective

combatant m or n (feminine singular combatantă, masculine plural combatanți, feminine and neuter plural combatante)

1. fighting

Declension

Declension of combatant

		singular				plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine		masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative- accusative	indefinite	combatant		combatantă		combatanți	combatante
	definite	combatantul		combatanta		combatanții	combatantele
genitive- dative	indefinite	combatant		combatante		combatanți	combatante
	definite	combatantului		combatantei		combatanților	combatantelor