melee
English · Thesaurus
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Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.
melee
- /ˈmɛˌleɪ/ UK
- /ˈmɛ.li/ UK
- /ˈmeɪˌleɪ/ US
- /meɪˈleɪ/ US
- /ˈmɛˌleɪ/ US
- /məˈleɪ/ US
Sounds like Malay (some accents) · Rhymes with -ɛleɪ, -ɛli
Where it 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.
noun melees · mêlée · melée
- A battle fought at close range, (especially) one not involving ranged weapons; hand-to-hand combat; brawling.; CQC; CQB Honestly, a lot of what this episode did right had more to do with the scenes that surrounded the enormous melee than those hyper-edited clashes of swords.
- A loud, confused or tumultuous fight, argument or scrap. The ball did not appear to cross the line, a view supported by television replays as Blues captain John Terry also joined the melee, but referee Atkinson awarded the goal - to the obvious anger of Spurs and their management team.
- Any confused, disorganised, disordered or chaotic situation. Within this melee of intersections between English and Cantonese, the students, being themselves bilingually fluent, were able to navigate with perfect ease in communicative contexts where the provenance of a certain term or expression matters little.
- 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.
verb melees · meleeing · meleed · mêlée · melée
- 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.
adjective mêlée · melée
- Of a weapon: used in close-range combat, e.g. a sword. Compare with ranged. A melee weapon is used to attack a target within 5 feet of you, whereas a ranged weapon is used to attack a target at a distance.
- Of a character, using melee weapons.
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: battle royal, scrimmage, scuffle, scramble, donnybrook, fracas, huddle, shuffle, riot, rumpus, ruckus, fray, brouhaha, rumble, hurt, wounded
Translations
Every language
noun Hand-to-hand combat
| 日本語 | 接近戦 sekkinsen |
|---|---|
| 中文 | 近战 jìnzhàn |
| Português | combate corpo-a-corpo |
| Deutsch | Handgemenge, Nahkampf, Händel, Schlägerei, Rauferei, Prügelei |
| Italiano | combattimento corpo a corpo |
| Română | luptă corp la corp |
| Русский | рукопашная rukopašnaja, схва́тка sxvátka |
| العربية | شجار |
noun battle fought at close range
| Deutsch | Nahkampf |
|---|---|
| Русский | ближний бой bližnij boj |
Talk about this word "melee." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/melee. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. melee. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/melee "melee." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/melee.Cite this
@misc{melee_2026,
title = {melee},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/melee},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
