| Main Entry: | |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | belligerent, hateful |
| Synonyms: | abusive, aggressive, antagonistic, bad-tempered, barbarous, bellicose, browbeating, brutal, bullying, caustic, combative, contentious, contumelious, cowing, cross, defiant, ferocious, fierce, frightening, harsh, hostile, inhuman, inhumane, intimidating, invective, mean, militant, mordacious, mordant, obstreperous, opprobrious, ornery*, pugnacious, quarrelsome, rude, savage, scathing, scrappy, scurrilous, sharp, sullen, terrifying, terrorizing, trenchant, violent, vituperative, vituperous |
| Antonyms: | cooperative, gentle, mild, nice, tame |
| Main Entry: | belligerent |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | nasty, argumentative |
| Synonyms: | aggressive, antagonistic, ardent, at loggerheads, battling, bellicose, cantankerous, combative, contentious, fierce, fighting, flip, have a bone to pick, have chip on shoulder, have it in for, hostile, hot, hot-tempered, mean, militant, on the outs, ornery, pugnacious, quarrelsome, scrappy, truculent, warlike |
| Notes: | bellicose orients 'prone to fighting' toward an individual while belligerent refers to an organized body, a national or political entity - a person is bellicose, a nation is belligerent |
| Antonyms: | cooperative, helping, kind, nice |
| Main Entry: | combative |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | aggressive |
| Synonyms: | antagonistic, bellicose, belligerent, cantankerous, contentious, cussed, energetic, fire-eating, gladiatorial, hawkish, militant, ornery*, pugnacious, quarrelsome, ructious, scrappy, strenuous, trigger-happy, truculent, warlike, warring |
| Antonyms: | agreeable, compromising, peaceful, peaceloving |
| Main Entry: | defiant |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | disobedient, disregardful |
| Synonyms: | aggressive, audacious, bold, challenging, contumacious, daring, gutsy, insolent, insubmissive, insubordinate, mutinous, obstinate, provocative, rebellious, recalcitrant, reckless, refractory, resistant, resistive, sassy*, truculent |
| Antonyms: | acquiescent, obedient, respectful, submissive, submitting, subordinating |
| Main Entry: | feisty |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | spirited; touchy |
| Synonyms: | active, alive, bubbly, courageous, difficult, enthusiastic, excitable, fiery, frisky, full of pep, game, gritty, gutsy, gutty, high-strung, hot-blooded, lively, mettlesome, ornery, peppy, quarrelsome, scrappy, sensitive, spunky, thin-skinned, tough, truculent, zestful |
| Main Entry: | ferocious |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | violent, barbaric |
| Synonyms: | barbarous, bloodthirsty, brutal, brutish, cruel, fell, feral, fierce, frightful, grim, implacable, inhuman, inhumane, lupine, merciless, murderous, pitiless, predatory, rapacious, ravening, ravenous, relentless, ruthless, sanguinary, savage, tigerish, truculent, unmerciful, unrestrained, untamed, vehement, vicious, voracious, wild, wolfish |
| Antonyms: | gentle, innocent, kind, mild, nonviolent, tame, tender |
| Main Entry: | fierce |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | violent, menacing |
| Synonyms: | angry, animal, ape, awful, barbarous, bloodthirsty, blustery, boisterous, bold, brutal, brutish, cruel, cutthroat, dangerous, enraged, fell, feral, ferocious, fiery, flipped, frightening, furious, horrible, howling, impetuous, infuriated, intense, malevolent, malign, murderous, passionate, powerful, primitive, raging, raving, relentless, savage, stormy, strong, tempestuous, terrible, threatening, tigerish, truculent, tumultous/tumultuous, uncontrollable, untamed, vehement, venomous, vicious, wild |
| Antonyms: | calm, gentle, kind, meek, nonviolent, peaceful, tame, tender, unthreatening |
| Main Entry: | fighting |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | aggressive, warlike |
| Synonyms: | angry, argumentative, battling, bellicose, belligerent, boxing, brawling, combative, contending, contentious, determined, disputatious, disputative, fencing, ferocious, hawkish, hostile, jingoistic, jousting, martial, militant, militaristic, pugnacious, quarrelsome, ready to fight, resolute, scrappy, skirmishing, sparring, tilting, truculent, unbeatable, under arms, up in arms, warmongering, wrestling |
| Antonyms: | peaceloving |
| Main Entry: | grim |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | hopeless, horrible in manner, appearance |
| Synonyms: | austere, barbarous, bleak, cantankerous, churlish, crabbed, cruel, crusty, dogged, ferocious, fierce, forbidding, foreboding, formidable, frightful, funereal, ghastly, gloomy, glowering, glum, grisly, grouchy, gruesome, grumpy*, harsh, hideous, horrid, implacable, inexorable, intractable, merciless, morose, ominous, relentless, resolute, ruthless, scowling, severe, shocking, sinister, somber, sour, splenetic, stern, stubborn, sulky, sullen, surly, terrible, truculent, unrelenting, unyielding |
| Antonyms: | bright, cheerful, happy, hopeful, joyful, sunny |