different between combat vs debate

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French, from Old French combatre, from Vulgar Latin *combattere, from Latin com- (“with”) + battuere (“to beat, strike”).

Pronunciation

• Noun:
  • (UK) IPA^(key): /?k?m?bæt/
  • (US) IPA^(key): /?k?m?bæt/
• Verb:
  • (UK) IPA^(key): /?k?m?bæt/
  • (US) IPA^(key): /k?m?bæt/, /?k?m?bæt/
• Rhymes: -æt

Noun

combat (countable and uncountable, plural combats)

1. A battle, a fight (often one in which weapons are used).

   • "My tastes," he said, still smiling, "incline me to the garishly sunlit side of this planet." And, to tease her and arouse her to combat: "I prefer a farandole to a nocturne; I'd rather have a painting than an etching; Mr. Whistler bores me with his monochromatic mud; I don't like dull colours, dull sounds, dull intellects; […]."
2. a struggle for victory

Derived terms

• combat pay
• combatant
• combative
• stage combat

Translations

Verb

combat (third-person singular simple present combats, present participle combatting or combating, simple past and past participle combatted or combated)

1. (transitive) To fight; to struggle against.

   It has proven very difficult to combat drug addiction.

2. (intransitive) To fight (with); to struggle for victory (against).
   • 1671, John Milton, Samson Agonistes

     To combat with a blind man I disdain.

Translations

Anagrams

• M.B. coat, tombac

Catalan

Etymology

From combatre, attested from 1490.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Valencian) IPA^(key): /kom?bat/
• (Central) IPA^(key): /kum?bat/
• Rhymes: -at

Noun

combat m (plural combats)

1. combat

Verb

combat

1. third-person singular present indicative form of combatre
2. second-person singular imperative form of combatre

References

Further reading

• “combat” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “combat” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “combat” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

French

Etymology

From combattre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k??.ba/
• Homophone: combats

Noun

combat m (plural combats)

1. combat (hostile interaction)
2. (figuratively) combat (contest; competition)
3. (in the plural) battle; military combat

Derived terms

Verb

combat

1. third-person singular present indicative of combattre

Further reading

• “combat” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Norman

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

combat m (plural combats)

1. (Jersey) combat

Romanian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [kom?bat]

Verb

combat

1. first-person singular present indicative of combate
2. third-person plural present indicative of combate
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of combate

English

Etymology

From Old French debatre (“to fight, contend, debate, also literally to beat down”), from Romanic desbattere, from Latin dis- (“apart, in different directions”) + battuere (“to beat, to fence”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /d??be?t/
• Rhymes: -e?t

Noun

debate (countable and uncountable, plural debates)

1. An argument, or discussion, usually in an ordered or formal setting, often with more than two people, generally ending with a vote or other decision.

2. An informal and spirited but generally civil discussion of opposing views.
3. (uncountable) Discussion of opposing views.
4. (frequently in the French form débat) A type of literary composition, taking the form of a discussion or disputation, commonly found in the vernacular medieval poetry of many European countries, as well as in medieval Latin.
5. (obsolete) Strife, discord.

Translations

Verb

debate (third-person singular simple present debates, present participle debating, simple past and past participle debated)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To participate in a debate; to dispute, argue, especially in a public arena. [from 14th c.]
   • August 11, 1709, Isaac Bickerstaff (pseudonym for Richard Steele or (in some later numbers of the journal) Joseph Addison), The Tatler No. 53

     He presents that great soul debating upon the subject of life and death with his intimate friends.

2. (obsolete, intransitive) To fight. [14th-17th c.]
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.viii:

     Well knew they both his person, sith of late / With him in bloudie armes they rashly did debate.

   • 1609, William Shakespeare, Sonnet 15:

     ... wasteful Time debateth with Decay,

     To change your day of youth to sullied night

3. (obsolete, transitive) To engage in combat for; to strive for.
   • 1838, William H. Prescott, History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic

     Volunteers […] thronged to serve under his banner, and the cause of religion was debated with the same ardour in Spain as on the plains of Palestine.

4. (transitive) To consider (to oneself), to think over, to attempt to decide

Derived terms

• debater

Related terms

• debatable
• debation

Translations

Further reading

• debate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• debate in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• beated, bed tea, bed-tea, betaed

Albanian

Noun

debate m pl

1. indefinite plural of debat

Portuguese

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /de.?ba.t?i/

Noun

debate m (plural debates)

1. debate

Quotations

For quotations using this term, see Citations:debate.

Verb

debate

1. third-person singular present indicative of debater
2. second-person singular imperative of debater

Quotations

For quotations using this term, see Citations:debate.

Spanish

Noun

debate m (plural debates)

1. debate, discussion

Related terms

• debatir

Verb

debate

1. Informal second-person singular (tú) affirmative imperative form of debatir.
2. Formal second-person singular (usted) present indicative form of debatir.
3. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present indicative form of debatir.