fighter
Americannoun
-
a boxer; pugilist.
-
Military. an aircraft designed to seek out and destroy enemy aircraft in the air and to protect bomber aircraft.
-
a person who fights, struggles, resists, etc.
-
a person with the will, courage, determination, ability, or disposition to fight, struggle, resist, etc.
-
an animal, as a dog, trained to fight or having the disposition to fight.
noun
-
a person who fights, esp a professional boxer
-
a person who has determination
-
military an armed aircraft designed for destroying other aircraft
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of fighter
before 1000; Middle English; Old English fēohtere. See fight, -er 1
Explanation
Someone who battles or brawls with other people is a fighter. Some fighters, like boxers, do it professionally, while others just have a tendency to fight. If you have a habit of getting into scuffles or fistfights, you're a fighter, and when you watch a boxing match, you might pick one of the two fighters to root for. An animal might also be described as a fighter: lions are natural fighters, and a fish struggling hard on the end of a hook is a fighter. Other fighters work heroically for a belief or ideal: "She was a fighter in the struggle for civil rights."
Vocabulary lists containing fighter
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:
Boeing's MQ-28 Ghost Bat is an uncrewed aircraft, developed with the Royal Australian Air Force, to fly alongside crewed fighter jets carrying out electronic warfare and surveillance and to help multiply forces.
From Barron's ● Jul. 24, 2026
The French aerospace company booked sharply lower orders in the first half of the year as the group didn’t log a single booking for its Rafale fighter jet, though its Falcon business aircraft remained popular.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
BAE Systems unveiled a life-size model of an unmanned fighter jet in front of the new Defence Secretary Wes Streeting at the Farnborough International Air Show.
From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026
Among the company’s business segments, second-quarter sales for aeronautics, which includes the F-35 fighter jet, rose 9.3% to $8.11 billion, besting the FactSet consensus of $7.61 billion.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 23, 2026
When the squadron of fighter planes saw the chaos they’d caused by scattering the Po-2 regiment, they didn’t have any choice but to fly on to the airfield alone.
From "A Thousand Sisters" by Elizabeth Wein
He has taken boxing to places few British fighters ever have.
From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2026
US President Donald Trump meanwhile threatened the Iran-backed fighters with "major military punishment".
From Barron's ● Jul. 24, 2026
To play Aemond, Mitchell looked at MMA and cage fighters to hone in on the character’s agile, brutal fighting style.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2026
America is on a global shopping spree outside China to secure critical minerals for jet fighters, tanks and cutting-edge ammunition, while European countries are hunting the same things to counter the threat of Russian aggression.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
In May 1954, just as Daniel Ellsberg was beginning his Marine training in Virginia, Viet Minh fighters surrounded French forces at a remote military outpost called Dien Bien Phu.
From "Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War" by Steve Sheinkin
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.
