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
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
The Crucible
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
The Hate U Give
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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:
Over the past few weeks she’s received questions about whether auditors can speak freely without retaliation from the labs and if evaluators can gain sufficient access to the necessary materials needed to conduct an audit.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 19, 2026
Still, Carney had no choice but to turn down Trump's trade deal offer last month, despite the likelihood of retaliation, said Drew Fagan, an expert on Canada-US economic relations at the University of Toronto.
From Barron's ● Sep. 9, 2026
The Canadian Chamber of Commerce has also urged the Carney government to take a surgical approach to retaliation.
From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2026
But the mood in the state is negative as tariff retaliation has cost export markets, and fertilizer and equipment prices are rising.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 7, 2026
Still, she had not expected such harsh retaliation.
From "Warriors Don't Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock's Central High" by Melba Pattillo Beals
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
Experts say that the war-fighting plans in general go from warning shots to single strikes to multiple retaliations and that the hardest question is whether there are reliable ways to prevent a conflict from escalating.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 21, 2022
And in the case of these Germans and the outrages they had committed and the retaliations they had provoked, he perceived that always there was the element of a perceptible if inadequate justification.
From Mr. Britling Sees It Through by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
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.
