How to Use combatant in a Sentence

combatant

noun
  • Britain was a main combatant in World War II.
  • But government schemes to retrain ex-combatants have not always been well run.
    The Economist, 2 Aug. 2019
  • James Atlas, who died last week, of chronic lung disease, at seventy, was a valorous combatant who knew both glory and defeat.
    Judith Thurman, The New Yorker, 9 Sep. 2019
  • And, as McCurry then suggestively writes, the treatment of women as combatants marked a turning point in the war.
    Brenda Wineapple, The New Republic, 16 Aug. 2019
  • Its numbers do not differentiate between combatants and civilians, but officials say at least half of the victims are women and children.
    Samy Magdy and Bassem Mroue, Los Angeles Times, 12 Oct. 2024
  • For the first time, players will have to worry about civilian casualties, NGOs, and other non-combatants.
    Matthew Gault, Time, 26 Aug. 2019
  • Now there was a lull, as if a sudden exhaustion had overcome the combatants, and, like a river reversing direction, people turned and proceeded slowly west, up the avenue.
    Christopher Ketcham, Harper's magazine, 22 July 2019
  • Wasn't DeBartolo supposed to be a competitor, if not an enemy combatant?
    Jon Wertheim, SI.com, 27 Aug. 2019
  • During the brawl, one of the combatants pulled a knife and stabbed the other two, then fled.
    City News Service, San Diego Union-Tribune, 13 Jan. 2024
  • Despite a driving, chilly rain, the combatants lived up to the hype.
    Childs Walker, baltimoresun.com, 2 Dec. 2019
  • Women from that class, the Navy said, were the first to serve on combatant ships and aircraft.
    Andrew Dyer, San Diego Union-Tribune, 23 Dec. 2020
  • The first round was pretty back-and-forth between the combatants.
    Eric Walden, The Salt Lake Tribune, 30 July 2023
  • The chicken wars are on, and the latest combatant to enter the fray is a giant.
    Dan Carson, Houston Chronicle, 3 Dec. 2019
  • As the war entered its 15th year, the United States faced a new combatant in Afghanistan and the old fault lines began to shift.
    Washington Post, 9 Aug. 2021
  • One by one the combatants were downed, then picked up and revived by a girl’s giant hand.
    Joseph O’Neill, The New Yorker, 4 Nov. 2019
  • Competitive combatant The rules of the game this year have been tweaked as well.
    Calum Trenaman, CNN, 14 Feb. 2020
  • The campaign could cost the lives of thousands of combatants and thousands of civilians as well.
    Doyle McManus, Los Angeles Times, 15 Oct. 2023
  • Israel said that all those who had been killed so far were combatants.
    Aaron Boxerman, New York Times, 4 July 2023
  • Some reporters were among those who tried to restrain the two combatants.
    Jacques Kelly, Baltimore Sun, 5 Mar. 2024
  • Vargas, a hand-to-hand combatant of that war, is taking me on a tour of his biggest busts in San Diego.
    Paul Solotaroff, Rolling Stone, 8 Jan. 2023
  • The Russians have 21 ships in the Black Sea 12 of them are surface combatant ships and nine of them are amphibious ships.
    Luis Martinez, ABC News, 23 Mar. 2022
  • But while the prize may be minor, the combatants are certainly not.
    Alison Herman, Variety, 8 July 2024
  • In declaring war on the upper class that made him, Carlson joined a long, volatile lineage of combatants against the élite.
    Evan Osnos, The New Yorker, 22 Jan. 2024
  • Somerville said Martinez got into a fight at the motel, and Bradford shot the other combatant in the thigh.
    Teri Figueroa, San Diego Union-Tribune, 7 May 2021
  • The deaths included those of combatants and civilians caught in the crossfire.
    Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY, 29 July 2023
  • Jones is not the only American combatant to have died in Ukraine.
    Phil McCausland, NBC News, 14 Sep. 2022
  • Social media users shared memes and pointed out that the combatants were split along racial lines.
    Char Adams, NBC News, 8 Aug. 2023
  • The Navy is tight-lipped about what new technologies will be fitted to the large surface combatant.
    Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 27 Apr. 2020
  • Three of the hostages released on Sunday are Thais who had been working in Israel when the Hamas combatants crossed the border.
    Aaron Boxerman, New York Times, 26 Nov. 2023
  • After their horns crack together a few times too many, the weaker combatant fails to get up.
    Ross Andersen, The Atlantic, 9 Sep. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'combatant.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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