How to Use bellicose in a Sentence

bellicose

adjective
  • At least, that’s what the bellicose rhetoric from Tehran suggests.
    — Ariel Cohen, Forbes.com, 2 July 2026
  • Female leaders appear to be just as bellicose as male ones, if not more so.
    — Grayson Quay, The Week, 29 June 2022
  • In the song, Lamar does a self-callout for being too bellicose in his raps.
    — Bethy Squires, Vulture, 11 Sep. 2024
  • Despite the bellicose nature of his first album, the 36-year-old singer is more lover than fighter.
    — Andrea Flores, Los Angeles Times, 23 June 2026
  • Polls conducted over decades show that Americans fear a leader who is bellicose or too tough.
    — Karlyn Bowman, Forbes.com, 3 Apr. 2025
  • His bellicose statements were designed to get the world to see North Korea as a world power.
    — Jim Michaels, USA TODAY, 24 Apr. 2018
  • Since then, her tweets have fluctuated between the bellicose and contrite.
    — Greg Braxton, latimes.com, 14 June 2018
  • The tone struck me as less than bellicose, as if the Kremlin might be looking to lower the temperature.
    — Joshua Yaffa, The New Yorker, 14 Feb. 2022
  • Kenny, the Store’s burly, famously bellicose chef, still mans the kitchen with his son Zack.
    — Julia Felsenthal, Vogue, 20 July 2017
  • Edelstein is taking his cues from the text, though his cast sometimes struggles when the bellicose mood switches abruptly into high pathos.
    — Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 15 Aug. 2024
  • The best baseball team in history is about to embark on a season that would turn even the most blustery and bellicose of Dodgers hoarse.
    — Bill Plaschke, Los Angeles Times, 29 Mar. 2021
  • Tucked around behind the wall are two side-by-side video projections, one showing the football game and the other a frenzied, bellicose crowd.
    — Christopher Knight, Los Angeles Times, 15 Nov. 2023
  • While bold, brazen and boisterous at best, the outer bounds on the right can be bellicose, bitter and biting at worst — bashing buddies to boot.
    — Eli Joseph, Fortune Europe, 5 June 2024
  • As well as his bellicose views, Mr Bolton was also criticised for his overbearing style.
    — The Economist, 10 Sep. 2019
  • Allies, meanwhile, will be looking to see how bellicose Trump is toward toward Kim.
    — David Jackson, USA TODAY, 2 Nov. 2017
  • The United States, meanwhile, has been pushing Lebanon to adopt a more bellicose posture.
    — Euan Ward, New Yorker, 29 May 2026
  • The most bellicose rhetoric from Kim’s government, which Trump matched in kind, has indeed subsided.
    — Los Angeles Times, 4 Aug. 2019
  • The termination of the Cold War did not erase the imprint of a more bellicose Buddhism.
    — Amar Diwakar, The New Republic, 23 Mar. 2018
  • His address was bellicose enough to draw a rebuke from the White House and renew fears of a Cold War-style arms race.
    — latimes.com, 2 Mar. 2018
  • In the weeks since the deadly Parkland shooting, the NRA has doubled down on its bellicose rhetoric.
    — Dave Holmes, Esquire, 9 Mar. 2018
  • That had been a far cry from his bellicose rhetoric, issued both on Twitter and from the rostrum of the United Nations last fall.
    — Catherine Lucey and Zeke Miller, The Christian Science Monitor, 24 May 2018
  • Nerves were also calmed by the toning-down of the bellicose threats with which America’s government at first responded to the attacks.
    — The Economist, 20 Sep. 2019
  • But Russia’s war in Ukraine extends well beyond its ruthless missile and drone strikes, its legions of soldiers, and its bellicose rhetoric.
    — David Lewis, Foreign Affairs, 18 Jan. 2024
  • The United States and Iran have teetered on the brink of armed conflict in recent weeks, with both sides issuing bellicose warnings.
    — Megan Specia, BostonGlobe.com, 8 July 2019
  • Trump’s bellicose rhetoric toward Ukraine this week put one of McConnell’s most important issues on the front burner.
    — Al Weaver, The Hill, 22 Feb. 2025
  • By lowering the temperature to around 64 degrees, the baby crocs become drowsy and less bellicose over a journey lasting up to a week.
    — Rob Taylor, WSJ, 23 Mar. 2018
  • And although the economic disparity hasn’t changed much, the North’s weaponry has, its war plan has, and its dictator’s bellicose rhetoric has.
    — Bill Powell, Newsweek, 25 Apr. 2017
  • Once the bluster and bellicose posturing has cleared, Europe is left with the war of today, not the one that probably won’t happen tomorrow.
    — Nick Paton Walsh, CNN Money, 21 Jan. 2026
  • This mode of comedy, whether taking aim at a bellicose first lady or Trump-supporting Black rappers, extends back to the transatlantic slave trade.
    — Hannah Giorgis, The Atlantic, 13 Nov. 2020
  • The small gesture spoke to a big opening, a signal that Kim may be willing to break with the bellicose records of his father and grandfather and the first several years of his own time in power.
    — Brian Bennett / Singapore, Time, 12 June 2018

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'bellicose.' 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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