fighter
Americannoun
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fighters
plural
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a boxer; pugilist.
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Military. an aircraft designed to seek out and destroy enemy aircraft in the air and to protect bomber aircraft.
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a person who fights, struggles, resists, etc.
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a person with the will, courage, determination, ability, or disposition to fight, struggle, resist, etc.
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an animal, as a dog, trained to fight or having the disposition to fight.
noun
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a person who fights, esp a professional boxer
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a person who has determination
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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:
"Mr Badr is a pride for Afghanistan and a great fighter," says Sultan Mohammad Talaee.
From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026
The plant in Garden Grove manufactures the canopy for the F-35 fighter jet.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2026
Allied countries have also responded and in the past week carried out a planned air exercise near the Russian exclave, using U.S. and Norwegian fighter aircraft and Polish ground forces.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 23, 2026
With a bald eagle, fighter jets, Air Force One, the Beast and race cars roaring through the nation’s capital, Trump certainly didn’t send the celebration out quietly.
From Salon ● Aug. 23, 2026
In the distance, I could hear the occasional hum of fighter planes overhead.
From "Code Name Kingfisher" by Liz Kessler
The SDF amassed around 100,000 fighters at its peak, both Kurds and Arabs, and controlled swathes of Syria's oil-rich north and northeast.
From Barron's ● Aug. 25, 2026
South Africa's Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie said: "South Africa has lost one of the finest fighters it has ever produced."
From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026
For a long stretch, it’s like watching two heavyweight fighters circle each other round after round without throwing a punch.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026
Intercepting a drone with two advanced jet fighters is extremely expensive.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026
The German fighters tried to break up the Soviet formation.
From "A Thousand Sisters" by Elizabeth Wein
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.
