retaliation
Americannoun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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.
When confronted with the allegations, she denied them and blamed her law clerk, claiming the clerk made it up in retaliation for a poor performance review.
From Slate • Jun. 8, 2026
U.S. officials have criticized a decision by Canadian provinces to ban the sale of U.S. wine and spirits at their government-run liquor stores, and Greer has warned of retaliation if the prohibition remains in place.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 2, 2026
News of the strikes, and threats of retaliation by Tehran, sent global oil prices soaring back to more than $100 a barrel.
From Los Angeles Times • May 26, 2026
The stories frame the all-consuming desire for retaliation as an integral aspect of our mortal lives; no one gets out without hankering for a bit of vengeance.
From Salon • May 19, 2026
But President Eisenhower had insisted that the nation’s first foray into space be presented as a peaceful effort, rather than an explicitly military operation that risked triggering a dangerous retaliation by the Soviet Union.
From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly
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.
