These words refer to competition or conflict between two hostile forces. Fight is the most general of these, ranging from suggesting any struggle towards a goal by one or more people to suggesting actual physical combat between numbers of people: a fight for life against great odds; a desperate fight to win the tournament at all costs; a fight broke out between two drunks and soon spread to the whole bar. Bout very often suggest any sort of competition specifically between two people: a name-calling bout between the two members; a drinking bout ; the bout for the heavyweight championship. The word can, however, suggest the struggle of one person against some adversity: a bout of the ‘flu: And it can be used for larger groups, even including a military conflict, in which case it is mostly used for colour: a shooting bout between the decimated guerrillas and the well-supplied invaders.

Clash clearly refers to a two-sided conflict between comparable forces: a clash of wills between student and teacher. When physical combat is referred to, a hasty or unexpected fight may be suggested: a clash that was over before the artillery could zero in on vulnerable enemy targets. Fray suggests a disorganized free-for-all or mêlée that involves a number of people: a fray that broke out in a side street. It may also refer to the very heart of a military conflict: stretcher-bearers unafraid of worming their way into the thick of the fray .

Battle refers most strongly to one specific fight that may be part of a larger or continuing war: a battle that resulted in heavier causalities than any other of the whole war. The word may, more abstractly, refer to some total war effort: our unceasing battle to drive the aggressor from these shores. Battle may also metaphorically describe fights or bouts outside the military context: a raging battle between the man and his wife.

The remaining words are all more formal than the foregoing and all apply more exclusively to military combat. Skirmish suggests a quickly organized or localized thrust against the enemy or a trivial, perhaps accidental, clash between the combatants: night patrols sent out to engage the enemy in a series of small skirmishes ; lines held without incident except for a few skirmishes . Action and engagement are both rather formal and colourless words to describe a battle . Action may suggest a full-scale struggle or a sporadic flickering of hostilities: a mopping-up action that was decisive; enemy action that continued throughout the night. Action may also be used euphemistically to describe an actual war, usually for political convenience: a Soviet police action that really consisted of armed intervention in their deepening civil war. Engagement refers to a single battle in a war, suggesting that opposing armies in search of each other have met and are contending for victory: reporting an engagement of sizeable forces east of the line of attack.