melee.
A battle fought at close range, (especially) one not involving ranged weapons; hand-to-hand combat; brawling.
Meaning & usage
A battle fought at close range, (especially) one not involving ranged weapons; hand-to-hand combat; brawling.
A loud, confused or tumultuous fight, argument or scrap.
Any confused, disorganised, disordered or chaotic situation.
Lively contention or debate, skirmish.
A cavalry exercise in which two groups of riders try to cut paper plumes off the helmets of their opponents, the contest continuing until no member of one group retains his plume.
Small cut and polished gemstones sold in lots.
Where this word comes from
Borrowed from French mêlée, from Old French meslee, feminine past participle of mesler (“to mix”), derived from Latin misceō (“mix”). Doublet of medley.
To physically hit in close quarters, as opposed to shooting, blowing up, or other ranged means of damage. Often refers to the usage of a hand-to-hand weapon.
Where this word comes from
Borrowed from French mêlée, from Old French meslee, feminine past participle of mesler (“to mix”), derived from Latin misceō (“mix”). Doublet of medley.
Of a weapon: used in close-range combat, e.g. a sword. Compare with ranged.
Of a character, using melee weapons.
Where this word comes from
Borrowed from French mêlée, from Old French meslee, feminine past participle of mesler (“to mix”), derived from Latin misceō (“mix”). Doublet of medley.
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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.