How to Use combatant in a Sentence

combatant

noun
  • Britain was a main combatant in World War II.
  • Israel said that all those who had been killed so far were combatants.
    — Aaron Boxerman, New York Times, 4 July 2023
  • But like two combatants in a war, all the civilians can do is shake their heads.
    — Jonathan Chait, Daily Intelligencer, 30 May 2018
  • Friday night’s combatants had spent the last two hours no more than yards apart.
    — Matt Slater, New York Times, 14 Feb. 2026
  • Some reporters were among those who tried to restrain the two combatants.
    — Jacques Kelly, Baltimore Sun, 5 Mar. 2024
  • Despite a driving, chilly rain, the combatants lived up to the hype.
    — Childs Walker, baltimoresun.com, 2 Dec. 2019
  • 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
  • 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
  • Iran has said that combatants in the war against it would remain blocked from passing through.
    — Nandika Chatterjee, Time, 12 Apr. 2026
  • The first round was pretty back-and-forth between the combatants.
    — Eric Walden, The Salt Lake Tribune, 30 July 2023
  • The ex-combatants weren’t handcuffed, and met the researchers face to face.
    — Sara Reardon, Scientific American, 9 May 2018
  • Except in this case, with no video footage, the online and talk-show combatants had less to draw from.
    — James Ross Gardner, New Yorker, 16 Jan. 2026
  • The army has fought back hard, claiming to have killed 411 combatants.
    — The Economist, 20 July 2017
  • Collins says there is no way the Israelis could have confused them with combatants.
    — Frank Langfitt, NPR, 23 Dec. 2025
  • It’s believed that teen is the initial combatant who was wounded with his own knife.
    — Sheetal Banchariya, New York Daily News, 7 Aug. 2025
  • Social media users shared memes and pointed out that the combatants were split along racial lines.
    — Char Adams, NBC News, 8 Aug. 2023
  • But while the prize may be minor, the combatants are certainly not.
    — Alison Herman, Variety, 8 July 2024
  • And the fortresses that dot the earth are where the biggest, scariest combatants await.
    — David Pierce, WSJ, 30 June 2019
  • Coker’s performance, though, has been on par with the rest of the combatants in the depth spots.
    — Mike Kaye july 30, Charlotte Observer, 30 July 2025
  • One of the combatants, 20, told police that the other man spit on him.
    — Jeff Piorkowski/special To Cleveland.com, cleveland.com, 8 Dec. 2017
  • 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 chicken wars are on, and the latest combatant to enter the fray is a giant.
    — Dan Carson, Houston Chronicle, 3 Dec. 2019
  • The campaign could cost the lives of thousands of combatants and thousands of civilians as well.
    — Doyle McManus, Los Angeles Times, 15 Oct. 2023
  • The noise of the fighting was moving upward, but the combatants were still hidden from view.
    — Frank C. Hibben, Outdoor Life, 13 Feb. 2025
  • Competitive combatant The rules of the game this year have been tweaked as well.
    — Calum Trenaman, CNN, 14 Feb. 2020
  • And the rules of engagement again are there to protect civilians and non-combatants.
    — ABC News, 5 Oct. 2025
  • The Health Ministry does not say how many were civilians or combatants.
    — Sam Mednick, Arkansas Online, 5 Oct. 2025
  • The rift that opens between Bea and the two combatants feels somehow contrived.
    — Jane Horwitz, kansascity, 8 Feb. 2018
  • Israel said that all of the Palestinians who were killed were combatants.
    — Aaron Boxerman, New York Times, 5 July 2023
  • Ownership of the Kennedy story is a war with many combatants.
    — Doreen St. Félix, New Yorker, 14 Feb. 2026

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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