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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
CBS News, 23 Apr. 2026
There was a bunch of melees on the ice today.
—Ryan Gaydos, FOXNews.com, 22 Apr. 2026
Fritznel Jean, 28, a resident of Boston, faces a count of causing mayhem and three counts of assault and battery on a police officer — one causing serious bodily injury — for the melee that took place at Transit Police headquarters the morning of April 10.
—Flint McColgan, Boston Herald, 17 Apr. 2026
Gladiatorial combat was not a wild scrum, like the melee in a medieval tourney.
—Literary Hub, 15 Apr. 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 26 Apr. 2026.
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melee
noun
