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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

fight.

Senses relating to physical conflict:

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/faɪt/Received-Pronunciation/fəɪt/Canada, US[fəɪʔ]Canada, US[fʌɪt]
  1. Senses relating to physical conflict: To engage in combat with; to oppose physically, to contest with.

    transitive
    My grandfather fought the Nazis in World War II.
  2. Senses relating to physical conflict: To conduct or engage in (battle, warfare, a cause, etc.).

    transitive
    Our soldiers fought the battle just over that hill.
  3. Senses relating to physical conflict: To contend in physical conflict, either singly or in war, battle, etc.

    intransitive
    A wounded animal will fight tooth and nail; relentless, savage and murderous.
  4. Senses relating to physical conflict: To contend in physical conflict with each other, either singly or in war, battle, etc.

    reciprocal
    The two boxers have been fighting for more than half an hour.
  5. Senses relating to physical conflict: To cause to fight; to manage or manoeuvre in a fight.

    causative
    to fight cocks; to fight one’s ship
  6. To strive for something; to campaign or contend for success.

    intransitive
    He fought for the Democrats in the last election.
  7. To try to overpower; to fiercely counteract.

    transitive
    The government pledged to fight corruption.
  8. Of colours or other design elements: to clash; to fail to harmonize.

    intransitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English fighten (“to fight”), from Old English feohtan (“to fight, combat, strive”), from Proto-West Germanic *fehtan (“to fight”), from Proto-Germanic *fehtaną (“to comb, tease, shear, struggle with”), from Proto-Indo-European *peḱ- (“to comb, shear”). Cognate with Scots fecht (“to fight”), West Frisian fjochtsje, fjuchte (“to fight”), Dutch vechten (“to fight”), Low German fechten (“to fight”), German fechten (“to fence”), Danish fægte (“to fence, to fight (using blade weapons)”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk fekte (“to fence”), Swedish fäkta (“to fence, to fight (using blade weapons), to wave vigorously (and carelessly) with one's arms”), Latin pectō (“comb, thrash”, verb), Albanian pjek (“to hit, strive, fight”), Ancient Greek πέκω (pékō, “comb or card wool”, verb). Related also to Old English feht (“wool, shaggy pelt, fleece”).

noun
  1. An occasion of fighting.

    countable · uncountable
    One of them got stuck in a chokehold and got stabbed to death during the fight.
  2. A battle between opposing armies.

    archaic · countable · uncountable
  3. A physical confrontation or combat between two or more people or groups.

    countable · uncountable
    Watch your language! Are you looking for a fight?
  4. A boxing or martial arts match.

    countable · uncountable
    I’m going to Nick’s to watch the big fight tomorrow night.
  5. A conflict, possibly nonphysical, with opposing ideas or forces; strife.

    countable · uncountable
    I’ll put up a fight to save this company.
  6. The will or ability to fight.

    uncountable
    That little guy has a bit of fight in him after all. As soon as he saw the size of his opponent, all the fight went out of him.
  7. A screen for the combatants in ships; an arming.

    countable · obsolete · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English fight, feyght, fiȝt, fecht, from Old English feoht, ġefeoht (“fight”), from Proto-West Germanic *fehtan (“to fight”), from Proto-Germanic *fehtą, *gafehtą (“fight, struggle”), from Proto-Germanic *fehtaną (“to struggle with”). Cognate with Dutch gevecht (“fight”), German Gefecht (“fight”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.