campaign

American  

[kam-peyn] / kæmˈpeɪn /

noun

1. the competition by rival political candidates and organizations for public office.

2. a systematic course of aggressive activities for some specific purpose.

   a sales campaign.

   Synonyms:

   offensive, push, effort, drive

3. Military.

   1. military operations for a specific objective.

   2. Obsolete. the military operations of an army in the field for one season.

4. a story in a role-playing game, spread out over multiple play sessions, that usually keeps the same plot, setting, or main characters.

   Last week we finished our campaign and I already miss it.

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verb (used without object)

1. to serve in or go on a campaign.

   He planned to campaign for the candidate.

   My daughter has been campaigning for a later curfew for months.

verb (used with object)

1. to race (a horse, boat, car, etc.) in a number or series of competitions.

campaign British  

/ kæmˈpeɪn /

noun

1. a series of coordinated activities, such as public speaking and demonstrating, designed to achieve a social, political, or commercial goal

   a presidential campaign

   an advertising campaign

2. military a number of complementary operations aimed at achieving a single objective, usually constrained by time or geographic area

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verb

1. to conduct, serve in, or go on a campaign

Other Word Forms

• campaigner
  noun
• countercampaign
  noun
• precampaign
  noun
• recampaign
  verb
• uncampaigning
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of campaign

First recorded in 1620–30; from French campagne, from Italian campagna, from Late Latin campānia “level district,” equivalent to Latin camp(us) “field” + -ān(us) -an + -ia -ia

Explanation

A campaign is any series of actions or events that are meant to achieve a particular result, like an advertising campaign of television commercials and Internet ads that tries to convince kids to buy bubble gum-flavored toothpaste. The noun campaign describes any group of actions that are done with an ultimate purpose in mind. The goal of a political campaign is to put a candidate in office. The goal of a military campaign might be to take over a city, as in General Sherman's Civil War campaign to capture Atlanta. Campaign can also be used as a verb, like when an environmental organization campaigns to prevent a developer from building a shopping mall by asking people to sign petitions and soliciting their members of congress.

Example Sentences

Campaign staff passed around the book, about healthy eating, which she wrote with her brother Calley, now a top Kennedy aide in the White House.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 1, 2026

The National Leasehold Campaign said it was "realistic" and "we know leasehold cannot be abolished overnight".

From BBC • Apr. 29, 2026

"It is obvious that trust is eroding, both inside and outside the NPT," Seth Shelden of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, told AFP.

From Barron's • Apr. 27, 2026

According to the Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales, there have been 73 applications since the National Plan was introduced.

From BBC • Apr. 19, 2026

Abernathy was Martin Luther King Jr.’s closest collaborator and had inherited the mantle of his Poor People’s Campaign, the second phase of the civil rights movement.

From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly

Related Words

• crusade
• drive
• fight
• movement
• offensive
• operation
• push