counter-attack

See also: counterattack

English

Alternative forms

• counterattack

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *ḱe?

Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm

Proto-Italic *kom

Proto-Italic *kom-

Proto-Indo-European *-teros

Proto-Italic *-teros

Proto-Italic *komterosder.

Proto-Italic *komterād

Latin contrāder.

Old French contre-

Anglo-Norman countre-bor.

Middle English counter-

English counter-

Proto-Indo-European *h₂éd

Proto-Italic *ad

Proto-Italic *ad-

Latin ad-

Italian a-

Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁

▲

Proto-Indo-European *trísinflu.

Proto-Indo-European *d(w)is-

Proto-Italic *dis-

Latin dis-

Old French des-

Old French atachier

Old French destachier

Middle French destacherbor.

Italian distaccare

Italian staccare

Italian attaccarebor.

French attaquerdeverb.

French attaquebor.

English attack

English counter-attack

From counter- + attack.

Pronunciation

• (noun)
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkaʊn.tər.əˌtæk/
  • (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkaʊn.tɚ.əˌtæk/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (verb)
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌkaʊn.tər.əˈtæk/
  • (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌkaʊn.tɚ.əˈtæk/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -æk
• Hyphenation: count‧er‧at‧tack

Noun

counter-attack (plural counter-attacks)

1. An attack made in response to an attack by the opponents
   • 2012 August 23, Alasdair Lamont, “Hearts 0-1 Liverpool”, in BBC Sport‎^[1], archived from the original on 24 August 2022:

     Liverpool should really have taken the lead on 33 minutes. A lightning quick counter-attack was led by Jordan Henderson down the right.

Synonyms

• counter-offensive

Antonyms

• counter-time

Translations

an attack made in response to an attack by the opponents

• Albanian: kundërsulm (sq) m
• Arabic: هُجُوم مُضَادّ m (hujūm muḍādd)
• Armenian: հակահարձակում (hy) (hakaharjakum), հակագրոհ (hy) (hakagroh)
• Azerbaijani: əks-hücum
• Belarusian: контрата́ка f (kontratáka), контрнаступле́нне n (kontrnastupljénnje)
• Bulgarian: контраата́ка (bg) f (kontraatáka)
• Catalan: contraatac m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 反擊 / 反击 (zh) (fǎnjī), 逆襲 / 逆袭 (zh) (nìxí)

• Czech: protiútok (cs) m
• Danish: modangreb n
• Dutch: tegenaanval (nl) m
• Estonian: vasturünnak
• Finnish: vastahyökkäys
• French: contre-attaque (fr) f, contre-offensive (fr) f, contrattaque (fr) f, controffensive (fr) f
• Georgian: კონტრშეტევა (ḳonṭršeṭeva), კონტრიერიში (ḳonṭrieriši)
• German: Gegenangriff (de) m
• Greek: αντεπίθεση (el) f (antepíthesi)
• Hebrew: התקפת נגד f (hatkafát néged)
• Hungarian: ellentámadás (hu)
• Icelandic: gagnárás f
• Irish: frithionsaí m
• Italian: contrattacco (it)
• Japanese: 反撃 (ja) (はんげき, hangeki), 逆襲 (ja) (ぎゃくしゅう, gyakushū)
• Kazakh: қарсы шабуыл (qarsı šabuwıl)
• Korean: 역습(逆襲) (ko) (yeokseup), 반격(反擊) (ko) (ban'gyeok)
• Kyrgyz: каршы чабуул (karşı cabuul)
• Latvian: pretuzbrukums m
• Lithuanian: kontrataka f
• Macedonian: противна́пад m (protivnápad)
• Māori: taupaepae, whana whakairi
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: motangrep n

  Nynorsk: motangrep n, motåtak n

• Persian: پاتَک (fa) (pâtak), ضِدِّحَمْله (fa) (zedd-e-hamle)
• Polish: kontratak (pl) m, kontra (pl) f
• Portuguese: contra-ataque (pt) m
• Romanian: contraatac (ro) n, contra-atac n
• Russian: контрата́ка (ru) f (kontratáka), контрнаступле́ние (ru) n (kontrnastuplénije)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: противна́пад m (Bosnian, Serbian), протуна́пад m (Croatian)

  Latin: protivnápad m (Bosnian, Serbian), protunápad (sh) m (Croatian)

• Slovak: protiútok m
• Slovene: protinapad m
• Spanish: contraataque (es) m
• Swahili: kaunta (sw)
• Swedish: motanfall (sv) n, motangrepp (sv) n, motattack (sv) c, kontring (sv) c (sports)
• Tajik: ҳамлаи ҷавобӣ (hamla-yi javobi), ҳуҷуми ҷавобӣ (hujum-i javobi)
• Tibetan: རྒོལ་ལན (rgol lan)
• Turkish: karşı atak, karşı saldırı (tr), kontratak (tr)
• Turkmen: garşy hüjüm
• Ukrainian: контрата́ка f (kontratáka), контрна́ступ m (kontrnástup)
• Uyghur: قايتۇرما ھۇجۇم (qayturma hujum)
• Uzbek: kontrataka (uz), qarshi hujum
• Vietnamese: phản công (vi)

Verb

counter-attack (third-person singular simple present counter-attacks, present participle counter-attacking, simple past and past participle counter-attacked)

1. To attack in response to an attack by opponents.
   • 1959 September, “Talking of Trains: Attack and counter-attack”, in Trains Illustrated, page 405:

     Taking a full-page advertisement in the New York Times, the New Haven counter-attacked with vigour.

Translations

to attack in response to an attack by opponents

• Armenian: հակահարձակվել (hy) (hakaharjakvel), հակագրոհել (hy) (hakagrohel)
• Bulgarian: контраатакувам (kontraatakuvam)
• Catalan: contraatacar (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 反擊 / 反击 (zh) (fǎnjī, fǎnjí)

• Finnish: tehdä vastahyökkäys
• French: contre-attaquer (fr), contrattaquer (fr)
• Greek: αντεπιτίθεμαι (el) (antepitíthemai)
• Hungarian: ellentámadást indít
• Irish: frithionsaigh
• Italian: contrattaccare (it)
• Polish: kontratakować impf
• Portuguese: contra-atacar
• Russian: контратакова́ть (ru) impf or pf (kontratakovátʹ)
• Spanish: contraatacar (es)
• Swedish: gå till motanfall/motangrepp/motattack, kontra (sv) (sports)
• Tibetan: རྒོལ་ལན་སློག (rgol lan slog), རྒོལ་ལན་སྤྲོད (rgol lan sprod)

References

• “counter-attack”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.