gladiatorial
Americanadjective
adjective
Etymology
Origin of gladiatorial
1745–55; < Latin gladiātōri ( us ) ( see gladiator, -tory 1) + -al 1
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.
Loyalty, it would seem, means nothing in the gladiatorial arena of the annual song contest.
From BBC • May 12, 2026
The best that can be done, he holds, is to “construct a tentative program of gladiatorial training.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 3, 2026
If you tuned into the Culture, Media and Sport committee hearing on Monday expecting a gladiatorial showdown, you'd have been left wondering where the swords were.
From BBC • Nov. 24, 2025
That isn’t enough to sway the gladiatorial majority, which is mostly made up of men grinning at the fattening piggy bank suspended above them.
From Salon • Jun. 27, 2025
So did Dorothy Fowler, who fumed to a visitor one day, “This community doesn’t want academic excellence. It wants a gladiatorial spectacle on a Friday night.”
From "Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, And A Dream" by H.G. Bissinger
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.
