as in brawls
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
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for melees
Noun
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The film followed Chan Lok-kwun (Raymond Lam), a mainland refugee trying to pay his way to a fake ID by winning bare-knuckle brawls.—
Marcus Lim,
Variety,
29 Oct. 2025 -
Both are perfectly capable of turning sequences that teeter on the edge of bathos into brawls.—
David Fear,
Rolling Stone,
29 Oct. 2025
Noun
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On Friday, clashes between protesters and immigration agents erupted near a middle school in Evanston, a suburb north of Chicago.—
NPR,
NPR,
3 Nov. 2025
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Early on, federal agents guarding the building deployed tear gas and shot pepper balls in clashes with protesters and arrested some of them, including some charged with felonies on suspicion of assaulting or blocking officers.—
Nicquel Terry Ellis,
CNN Money,
2 Nov. 2025
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“Melees.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/melees. Accessed 5 Nov. 2025.
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