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Melee Has French Roots
English has no shortage of words for confused and noisy fights, some (fray, brawl, scrap) more common than others (donnybrook, fracas). Melee tends to be encountered more often in written rather than spoken English, but it is far from obscure, and has seen increasing use especially in the context of video games featuring some form of hand-to-hand combat. Such games allow players to mix it up with all manner of rivals and baddies from the comfort and safety of their home, with mix being an especially apt word alongside melee: the latter comes from the French word mêlée, which in turn comes from the Old French verb mesler, meaning "to mix."
Examples of melee in a Sentence
Jaweed Kaleem, Los Angeles Times, 26 May 2026
Justice Curtis Farber handed down the sentence to Alejandro Piedra, 32, for claiming the life of 38-year-old Clemson Cockfield, and grievously injuring the victim’s wife, Jennifer Cockfield, and another man, Jonathan Lopez, during a bloody melee on June 23, 2024.
—Molly Crane-Newman, New York Daily News, 26 May 2026
Fatekeeper is a first-person dark fantasy action RPG that is powered by a physics-heavy melee fight engine that also carries spellcasting concepts.
—Brian Mazique, Forbes.com, 26 May 2026
Doors, furniture and the ground floor windows were destroyed in the melee.
—ABC News, 24 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for melee
Cite this Entry
“Melee.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/melee. Accessed 3 Jun. 2026.
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melee
noun
