as in brawl
a rough and often noisy fight usually involving several people
a verbal disagreement at the football game soon turned into a general melee involving scores of spectators
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Recent Examples of melee
Larkin looked around the pits, at the melee of machines, racers, and mechanics, then back at Ricard.
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Jeff Spry, Space.com, 10 Dec. 2025
Islanders forward Marc Gatcomb’s stick actually get stuck inside Blackwood’s leg pads during the melee.
—Corey Masisak, Denver Post, 5 Dec. 2025
But the brother, Christian Duran, 20, and his girlfriend, Allana Nevaeh Murillo, 21, were already facing charges stemming from a schoolyard melee two years ago.
—Robert Salonga, Mercury News, 5 Dec. 2025
It’s gone through a melee of bodies.
—George Caulkin, New York Times, 3 Dec. 2025
See All Example Sentences for melee
Recent Examples of Synonyms for melee
brawl
Noun
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Investigators aren't saying if there's a connection between Henderson's death and brawls at the bar.—
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The reminder didn’t dissuade at least five park visitors from participating in a 2023 brawl that was captured on video, showing a woman and man throwing punches at each other and wrestling before others joined in.—
Cite this Entry
“Melee.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/melee. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
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