belligerent. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

belligerent

SYLLABICATION:	bel·lig·er·ent
PRONUNCIATION:	b-ljr-nt
ADJECTIVE:	1. Inclined or eager to fight; hostile or aggressive. 2. Of, pertaining to, or engaged in warfare.
NOUN:	One that is hostile or aggressive, especially one that is engaged in war.
ETYMOLOGY:	Latin belligerns, belligerant-, present participle of belligerre, to wage war, from belliger, warlike : bellum, war + gerere, to make.
OTHER FORMS:	bel·liger·ent·ly —ADVERB
SYNONYMS:	belligerent, bellicose, pugnacious, contentious, quarrelsome These adjectives mean having or showing an eagerness to fight. Belligerent refers to a tendency to hostile behavior: A belligerent reporter badgered the politician. Bellicose and pugnacious suggest a natural disposition to fight: “All successful newspapers are ceaselessly querulous and bellicose” (H.L. Mencken). A good litigator needs a pugnacious intellect. Contentious implies chronic argumentativeness: “His style has been described variously as abrasive and contentious, overbearing and pompous” (Victor Merina). Quarrelsome suggests bad temper and a perverse readiness to bicker: “The men gave him much room, for he was notorious as a quarrelsome person when drunk” (Stephen Crane, Twelve O'Clock 1899.)


The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.