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Combative

Adjective
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Describes an antagonistic or confrontational style in poetic or rhetorical expression.

Detailed Definition
Combative in poetry refers to a tone, theme, or structural stance that embodies opposition, conflict, or rhetorical aggression; such poems may challenge social norms, engage in poetic debate, or adopt martial metaphors, often using sharp diction, abrupt rhythms, or confrontational syntax to assert a defiant or polemical voice.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Audre Lorde’s “Power,” the speaker confronts police violence with combative urgency: “I have no more power than the powerless”; In Amiri Baraka’s “Black Art,” “Poems that kill” demands combative poetry as weapon; In Danez Smith’s “not an elegy for Mike Brown,” combative tone rejects elegiac tradition for protest; In June Jordan’s “A Poem about Intelligence for My Brothers and Sisters,” combative wit challenges systemic oppression; In Claudia Rankine’s “Citizen,” combative vignettes expose everyday racism through direct address.
Additional Notes
Combative|A term describing the tone, subject, or structure of a poem that expresses conflict, opposition, or a sense of struggle, often in the spirit of a debate or argument; relates to Contest form (4231).
Also Known As
polemical confrontational aggressive style Agonistic
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