skirmish vs combat

skirmish and combat both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
skirmish	Yes	No	Yes	No
combat	Yes	No	Yes	No

As nouns, combat is a hypernym of skirmish; that is, combat is a word with a broader meaning than skirmish:

Other hypernyms of skirmish include fight, fighting, scrap.

skirmish (noun)	combat (noun)
a minor short-term fight	an engagement fought between two military forces
	the act of fighting; any contest or struggle

skirmish (verb)	combat (verb)
engage in a skirmish	battle or contend against in or as if in a battle