retaliation
Americannoun
-
retaliations
plural
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of retaliation
Explanation
Retaliation is an act of revenge. Before you initiate retaliation on someone who has wronged you, consider whether he or she might have a ninja alter ego and a set of nunchucks stashed away. The noun retaliation stems from the Latin retaliare, meaning “pay back in kind.” Notice the word kind in that definition. Retaliation used to have both good and evil connotations. Now, though, it’s important to read that kind as synonymous with type or sort because retaliation has since lost its positive sense. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.”
Vocabulary lists containing retaliation
Fahrenheit 451
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The Crucible
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The Hate U Give
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
It also provided the Yemeni militants with intelligence, target lists including Saudi ports and energy facilities, and advice on sheltering from Saudi retaliation, the officials said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026
Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney warned in response that a potential further retaliation was on the table if the new tariffs were enforced.
From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2026
The department has long had a policy that forbids retaliation against officers who report misconduct.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2026
These attacks were concentrated in a route close to the Omani coast and prompted extensive U.S. military retaliation.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
He said that Germany was firing back in retaliation.
From "Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
The moves follow a familiar pattern in U.S.-China negotiations of “limited escalations, symbolic retaliations, and carefully timed policy signals designed to probe the other side’s bottom line,” Gao said.
From Barron's ● Oct. 15, 2025
Mr Raghavan is alluding to two previous major retaliations by India in 2016 and 2019.
From BBC ● Apr. 23, 2025
American forces have at times mounted retaliations, but in limited fashion to avoid instigating a full-fledged conflict.
From New York Times ● Jan. 21, 2024
The agreement — which still needs to be finalized — comes after years of diplomatic tit-for-tat retaliations that have left the embassy badly understaffed, down from 1,200 personnel five years ago to just 120 now.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 3, 2021
Our fathers were not mistaken as to that fact; but their inhospitable and fierce slamming of doors in the faces of these visitants provoked terrible retaliations.
From Witchcraft of New England Explained by Modern Spiritualism by Allen Putnam
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
