Meanings
combo1
plural combos · plural comboes
- A small musical group.
The jazz combo played nightly at the little restaurant.
- slangA combination.
I need to open the safe but I forgot the combo.
2 more examples
I order the low priced combo platter: a taco, a burrito and a chimichanga.
As the 1857 to Manchester Piccadilly rolls in, I scan the windows and realise there are plenty of spare seats, so I hop aboard. The train is a '221'+'220' combo to allow for social distancing - a luxury on an XC train as normally you're playing sardines, so I make the most of it.
2020 December 2, Paul Bigland, “My weirdest and wackiest Rover yet”, in Rail, page 68 - Effective combination of gameplay elements.
- gamesAn action composed of a sequence of simpler actions, especially a composite attacking move in a fighting game.
Obviously, this is something not seen very often, with super flashy, combo-driven fighters dominating store shelves everywhere.
2002, Andy Slaven, Video Game Bible, 1985-2002 - especially collectible card gamesgamesA strategy aiming to win by playing a specific combination of cards (or similar), often in a single turn.
Whenever I play (I play D&D alot^([sic]) too) I always play combo.
1999, michele oasheim, “The Funnest Combo Decks”, in rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy (Usenet)1 more example
Personally I'd like to see an environment where all the major archetypes, control, beatdown, and combo are viable.
1999, Steven Merritt, “[ISSUE] An alternative to Banning, increase minimum deck size”, in rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy (Usenet)
- AustraliaderogatoryA Caucasian man who marries or has a sexual relationship with an Aboriginal woman, or who lives among Aboriginal people and adopts Aboriginal culture.
Many passages in Harney's books are written from the point of view of what he refers to as the ' combo '; a white man who has sexual relations with Aboriginal women. The combo is seen as an anarchic, egalitarian figure whose enjoyment of life largely comes through his pursuit of Aboriginal women.
1996, Jeremy MacClancy, Chris McDonaugh, editors, Popularizing Anthropology, London and New York: Routledge, page 1672 more examples
"[…] Look at Ganger O'Cannon of Black Adder Creek, with his halfcaste wife and quadroon kids, a down-right family man—yet looked on as as much a combo as if he lived in a blacks' camp. Isn't that so? […] The casual comboes are respected, while men like O'Cannon and myself, who rear their kids, are utterly despised. […]"
1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter VII, in Capricornia, pages 107–81993, Journal of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, p. 97, https://books.google.ca/books?id=Ky4iAQAAMAAJ&q=%22a+combo%22+halfcaste+-%22combo+box%22&dq=%22a+combo%22+halfcaste+-%22combo+box%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi18NvhnufMAhWL6IMKHfnYDUkQ6AEIbDAQ If he sides with the Aborigines against their employers and exploiters, he may be called a ' combo ', and yet he may not achieve popularity with the Aborigines.
- informalcomputingA combo box.
Combos and lists are two very powerful controls that allow the user to select from a predetermined set of values.
2000, Marcia Akins, Andy Kramek, Rick Schummer, 1001 Things You Wanted to Know about Visual FoxPro, page 127
present singular third person combos · participle present comboing · participle past comboed · past comboed
- slangtransitiveTo combine.
- transitivevideo gamesTo perform a combo attack on.
Combo2
- alternativeAlternative form of Kombo.
- A locality in the Singleton council area, eastern New South Wales, Australia.
Synonyms & antonyms
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
Clipping of combination + -o.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Bulgarian ко́мбо, ко́мбо
- ко́мбо (kómbo)video games: sequence of simpler actions
- ко́мбо (kómbo)gaming: two or more gameplay elements powerful together
- ко́мбо (kómbo)collectible card games: strategy aiming to win by playing a specific combination of cards
Finnish kombo, kombo
- kombovideo games: sequence of simpler actions
- kombogaming: two or more gameplay elements powerful together
- kombocollectible card games: strategy aiming to win by playing a specific combination of cards
German Combo
- Combosmall musical group
Greek συνδυασμός
- συνδυασμός (syndyasmós)slang: combination
Hungarian kombó
- kombóslang: combination
Indonesian kombo
- komboslang: combination
Swedish kombination, kombo
- kombinationslang: combination
- komboslang: combination
- kombinationvideo games: sequence of simpler actions
- kombovideo games: sequence of simpler actions
- kombinationgaming: two or more gameplay elements powerful together
- kombogaming: two or more gameplay elements powerful together
- kombinationcollectible card games: strategy aiming to win by playing a specific combination of cards
- kombocollectible card games: strategy aiming to win by playing a specific combination of cards
Turkish kombo, kombo
- kombovideo games: sequence of simpler actions
- kombogaming: two or more gameplay elements powerful together
- kombocollectible card games: strategy aiming to win by playing a specific combination of cards
Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
combo. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/combo
“combo.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/combo. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “combo,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/combo.
Source: combo on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.