retaliatory
Americanadjective
Other Word Forms
- unretaliative adjective
- unretaliatory adjective
Etymology
Origin of retaliatory
Explanation
A retaliatory act is one that attempts to get even with someone or to punish them for some wrongdoing. When you shove your brother because he shoved you, that's retaliatory. Sometimes, wars are avoided because one country or group hesitates to attack another out of fear of a retaliatory strike. In fact, most wars consist of a long series of retaliatory actions — a bomb dropped to pay the enemy back for the bomb they dropped, and so on. Retaliatory comes from the verb retaliate, and the Latin root retaliare, "pay back in kind."
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.
Airports in Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi have been forced to close because of Tehran's retaliatory strikes across the region, resulting in tens of thousands of flights cancelled, affecting millions of passengers.
From Barron's • Apr. 9, 2026
On Wednesday, there was a palpable sense of relief in Dubai, Doha and Kuwait that these Gulf cities avoided potentially catastrophic Iranian retaliatory strikes on their own power plants and water desalination facilities.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 8, 2026
Advocacy groups including Equal Rights Advocates, Child USA and Sanctuary for Families have backed her efforts, warning that allowing retaliatory defamation claims to proceed could chill survivors from coming forward.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 2, 2026
But Iranian forces continue to operate mobile systems and launch retaliatory attacks, underscoring the regime’s resilience and the difficulty of neutralizing its long‑range capabilities completely.
From Salon • Mar. 29, 2026
In order to forestall outbreaks of retaliatory violence, we arranged a week-long series of mass rallies and demonstrations throughout the country.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
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.
