How to Use pugnacious in a Sentence

pugnacious

adjective
  • There's one pugnacious member on the committee who won't agree to anything.
  • And there seemed to be absolutely no one on the flight who was the least bit pugnacious.
    — Ellyn Laub, sun-sentinel.com, 4 Nov. 2021
  • At the same time the pugnacious bass did a good job of protecting their own offspring.
    — Hank Bradshaw, Outdoor Life, 24 June 2026
  • Trump has a compulsion to counter-attack and is very pugnacious.
    — Stephen Collinson, CNN, 19 June 2017
  • The new man likely will bring a tad of pugnacious energy that is needed to the club.
    — Chuck Murr, Forbes.com, 17 May 2025
  • Muster was almost Nadal-like in his grinding, pugnacious play.
    — Jon Wertheim, SI.com, 17 Jan. 2018
  • Kaufmann, in his translations, brought to bear a strong, pugnacious style.
    — Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 7 Oct. 2019
  • Kimmel reasserted his place as the most pugnacious of the late-night hosts during his first week back.
    — Bethy Squires, Vulture, 9 Jan. 2026
  • She was known for her pugnacious fights with editors as well as filmmakers.
    — Borys Kit, The Hollywood Reporter, 14 Mar. 2023
  • People who live here take pride in a kind of pugnacious, underdog spirit.
    — Gustavo Arellano, latimes.com, 30 June 2019
  • Gone is the pugnacious battler carrying around a career full of angst.
    — Matthew Futterman, New York Times, 14 July 2023
  • War with Britain’s pugnacious press marks a sharp change in Labour strategy.
    — The Economist, 22 Feb. 2018
  • To be sure, the pugnacious poet had his moments of assurance.
    — Washington Post, 25 Feb. 2021
  • But look out for that slope — which might lead to the Fightin’ Irish and their little, pugnacious guy.
    — Jay Nordlinger, National Review, 26 Aug. 2021
  • Christie, who was governor at the time, took a pugnacious approach to the policy fight.
    — Matt Ford, The New Republic, 26 Jan. 2023
  • Provocative and at times pugnacious, Peterson proved to be the man for the moment.
    — Kyle Smith, National Review, 30 Oct. 2019
  • But his presence has hollowed out the party, with its gap between a pugnacious grassroots and a lonely elite.
    — Selim Koru, Foreign Affairs, 28 June 2016
  • The Coup’s early records were pugnacious, laced with humor and some finger-wagging.
    — Emily Nussbaum, New Yorker, 17 May 2026
  • Now a pugnacious preteen, Harper gets kicked out of the school musical for whaling on a classmate.
    — Time, 24 Aug. 2023
  • Instead Linda devolves, becoming more pugnacious and thin-skinned and pissed off.
    — Angelica Jade Bastién, Vulture, 19 Dec. 2025
  • Even great whites have been observed with the tell-tale round wounds of a cookie cutter bite, and the pugnacious hunters have been known to disable nuclear submarines.
    — Steven Hill, Field & Stream, 26 July 2023
  • And as the Olympics approached its end, the political messaging got more pugnacious.
    — Cnn's Beijing Bureau, CNN, 20 Feb. 2022
  • Gibbs was joined by the great DJ-producer the Alchemist for his pugnacious, heaving set of hard-nosed hip-hop.
    — Elias Leight, Rolling Stone, 27 Sep. 2021
  • The pugnacious skater’s on-ice DNA is catered perfectly for the frenzied fracas set to play out over the next few weeks.
    — Conor Ryan, BostonGlobe.com, 18 Apr. 2023
  • Vance, who privately voiced his concerns about conflict with Iran in the lead-up to the war, is pugnacious and transactional.
    — Vivian Salama, The Atlantic, 27 June 2026
  • It’s been a wonky stretch for the Magic, who looked like pugnacious early-season darlings in December.
    — Steven Louis Goldstein, The Athletic, 25 Feb. 2025
  • The pugnacious forward scored four goals and racked up 70 hits with Boston during the regular season.
    — Conor Ryan, BostonGlobe.com, 15 May 2023
  • He was known as a pugnacious investigator who had dismantled some of the country’s most violent gangs.
    — Heidi Blake, New Yorker, 8 June 2026
  • Rumor is the pugnacious Irish actor Jack O’Connell plays the villain.
    — Meredith Blake, Los Angeles Times, 1 Jan. 2025
  • The critics are not kind to him in either performance, but Scorsese is impressed with his work ethic and pugnacious attitude.
    — Joe Reid, Vulture, 13 Mar. 2026

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