Meaning & use
bellicosity
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Meaning
noununcountableformalliterary
A strong readiness to quarrel, fight or go to war.
Grammar: Rarely takes a plural: the bellicosity of the speech alarmed neighbors.
Patterns
- the bellicosity of someone
The president's bellicosity worried neighboring countries.
His bellicosity in meetings made compromise difficult.
The newspaper criticized the bellicosity of the speech.
Common combinations
- national bellicosity
- National bellicosity grew before the war.
- growing bellicosity
- Growing bellicosity pushed the talks off course.
- bellicosity of tone
- The bellicosity of his tone shocked the audience.
- show bellicosity
- The leader showed bellicosity at the summit.
Synonyms and how they differ
- belligerence
- Belligerence is the more common word and stresses hostile behavior, while bellicosity stresses an eagerness to fight.
- aggression
- Aggression covers any hostile action and is a broader, everyday term.
- hostility
- Hostility means unfriendly feeling and need not involve wanting to fight.
Opposites
Word family
- bellicose adjective
- eager to fight
- belligerent adjective
- aggressive and hostile
- belligerence noun
- aggressive behavior
- bellicosely adverb
- in a warlike way
Commonly confused: bellicosity or belligerence?
bellicosity vs belligerence
The words are close, but belligerence is more common and means hostile behavior, whereas bellicosity is eagerness to fight.
Practice
Critics said the speech showed unusual ____ toward neighboring states.
Choose one answer.
Bellicosity means eagerness to fight. The other nouns describe qualities that would not be criticized in this way.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “bellicosity”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.