Adjective: attritional
Comparison Forms
Synthetic
Perifrastic
| Comparative | more attritional |
| Superlative | most attritional |
Sample Sentences
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a prolonged attritional battle
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attritional wear on a molar
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After months of attritional, heavy-handed flirting […] [2009 February 1, Victoria Coren, “Ah, first love … lots of Steven Berkoff and no snogging”, in The Guardian:]
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Sighted on Habitat 7, this unknown species has proven to be extremely dangerous. Their armor and equipment suggest a technologically advanced species capable of spaceflight, while their battle tactics indicate attritional warfare with a centralized command. [2017, BioWare, Mass Effect: Andromeda, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Unknown Species Codex entry:]
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The drama of the finale was at odds with almost of all the match, which was an attritional affair on a tricky surface. [2019 July 14, Stephan Shemilt, “England win Cricket World Cup: Ben Stokes stars in dramatic finale against New Zealand”, in BBC Sport, London:]
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The first half was attritional, too congested for England’s liking. Tuchel has talked about bringing Premier League levels of intensity but that was in short supply. [2025 March 24, David Hytner, “Reece James bends it like Beckham to help England break down Latvia”, in The Guardian:]
Adjectives inflected like attritional
priest-ridden,
unreposed,
evadible,
dissentious,
dissentient,
unforesighted,
egocentrical,
unephemeral,
unennobling,
mensuralist,
flocculent,
unseductive,
whoopsy,
whooshy,
surrogate,
Nicodian,
unrepaired,
prismatoidal,
renorenal,
unseducible, etc. (List truncated at 20 adjectives)
Etymology
From attrition + -al.