Is this your crossword clue?
"fighter" is also used as a crossword clue. If that's what you saw, the answer is often combatant (9 letters).
Definitions
a high-speed military or naval airplane designed to destroy enemy aircraft in the air
Word origin
From Middle English fightere, feghtere, from Old English feohtere. Equivalent to fight + -er.
Used in a sentence
“Little weapons / Over the phone / They like to threaten / The life that I know / They say "Get over here and get into the ring" / But I'm not really much of a fighter”
“Task Force 42 consisted of almost two dozen main line spinships, including the carriers Olympus Shadow and Neptune Station. Each of these can launch more than a hundred fighters or ALRs.”
“I toss around [37,654 tonne] dreadnoughts like they were fighters; dimly aware of the former crews being crushed to liquescence.”
Source: Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0
Used as a crossword answer1 curated clues
01“Combatant or aircraft”7 letters
Not quite right?
"Search similar patterns."
F______