A practitioner of one of the few European martial arts still in general circulation, fencers are divided into three groups based on their choice of weapon. These are foil, epee, and sabre. The only other widely practiced competitive martial arts from Europe are boxing and archery.

Fencer is also the NATO codename of the Soviet-designed Su-24 fighter/bomber aircraft. This is roughly similar to the older US F/B-111 Aardvark.