war
noun
a conflict carried on by force of arms, as between nations or between parties within a nation; warfare, as by land, sea, or air.
war
1 American
[wawr]
/ wɔr /
noun
-
wars
plural
-
a conflict carried on by force of arms, as between nations or between parties within a nation; warfare, as by land, sea, or air.
-
a state or period of armed hostility or active military operations.
The two nations were at war with each other.
-
a contest carried on by force of arms, as in a series of battles or campaigns.
the War of 1812.
-
armed fighting, as a science, profession, activity, or art; methods or principles of waging armed conflict.
War is the soldier's business.
-
active hostility or contention; conflict; contest.
a war of words.
-
aggressive business conflict, as through severe price cutting in the same industry or any other means of undermining competitors.
a fare war among airlines; a trade war between nations.
-
a struggle to achieve a goal.
the war on cancer;
a war against poverty;
a war for hearts and minds.
-
Cards.
-
a game for two or more persons, played with a 52-card pack evenly divided between the players, in which each player turns up one card at a time with the higher card taking the lower, and in which, when both turned up cards match, each player lays one card face down and turns up another, the player with the higher card of the second turn taking all the cards laid down.
-
an occasion in this game when both turned up cards match.
-
-
Archaic. a battle.
verb (used without object)
-
wars,
present (3rd person singular)
-
warred,
past participle, past
-
warring
present participle
-
to make or carry on war; fight.
to war with a neighboring nation.
-
to carry on active hostility or contention.
Throughout her life she warred with sin and corruption.
-
to be in conflict or in a state of strong opposition.
The temptation warred with his conscience.
adjective
war
2
American
[wahr]
/ wɑr /
adjective
Scot. and North England.
war.
3
American
abbreviation
war
1
British
/ wɔː /
noun
-
open armed conflict between two or more parties, nations, or states
-
a particular armed conflict
the 1973 war in the Middle East
-
the techniques of armed conflict as a study, science, or profession
-
any conflict or contest
a war of wits
the war against crime
-
(modifier) of, relating to, resulting from, or characteristic of war
a war hero
war damage
a war story
-
to have made the most of the opportunities presented to one during wartime
-
informal (esp of a child) hurt or knocked about, esp as a result of quarrelling and fighting
verb
War.
2
British
abbreviation
war
Idioms
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
warsimple
-
warssimple
-
have warredperfect
-
has warredperfect
-
am warringprogressive
-
are warringprogressive
-
is warringprogressive
-
have been warringperfect progressive
-
has been warringperfect progressive
Past
-
warredsimple
-
had warredperfect
-
was warringprogressive
-
were warringprogressive
-
had been warringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of war1
First recorded before 1150; Middle English noun wer(re), war(re), late Old English werre, wyrre, from Old North French wer(r)e, waire, from Old Frankish werra (unrecorded), from Germanic; cognate with Old High German werra, Middle Low German, Middle Dutch werre “strife, discord”; verb derivative of the noun; akin to war 2, worse
Origin of war2
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English wer(re), war(re), from Old Norse verri worse
Explanation
War is armed combat between two or more countries or between different groups of people within the same country. As the soul singer Edwin Starr asked, "War! Huh! What is it good for?" Absolutely nothing. The term "civil war" means not that the war is courteous and polite, but that it is between citizens of the same nation or community, as in the American Civil War. Often war refers to nonmilitary combat or tension, such as between angry neighbors, or rival sports teams, or between different social classes — as in "class war," or government policies such as the "war on drugs."
Vocabulary lists containing war
Memorial Day: Words of Respect and Remembrance
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Part 1 Vocabulary (Unit 1)
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Gather Vocabulary Knowledge, Unit 1
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
When I graduated from college, I aspired to be a war correspondent and report on the humanitarian crises shaping our time.
From Salon ● Sep. 26, 2026
The US and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding in June that aimed to end the war, reopen the strait and launch talks on Iran's nuclear program.
From Barron's ● Sep. 26, 2026
But Funko’s sales plunged in 2025 following a global trade war.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 26, 2026
During the recent civil war, Eritrea fought alongside Ethiopian troops but the two neighbours, which have long had a volatile relationship, have again fallen out.
From BBC ● Sep. 25, 2026
Johnson describes her actions during the war, but also details all the things Joey did for the patients at Tala, documenting it for perpetuity in the Congressional Record.
From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly
“Well, hopefully we are toward the end of the war. They want to make a deal, we’ll see how that works out,” the president told reporters on Wednesday evening.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 17, 2026
“They’re scaring people, saying Russia is going to start a war. It’s stupid,” he said, as he walked along the Narva River.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026
“Jordan is not a party to this war. Its people should not have to bear the consequences or pay the price for policies that do not serve the nation’s supreme interests,” the letter said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026
"I simply brought my accounting system with me to the war. We took the names of grain varieties from the table and entered the types of drones and ammunition there," he told AFP.
From Barron's ● Jun. 10, 2026
“These boys stopped a range war. Talk about using your head, Mary Eve. These boys ran straight to town to warn us. Didn’t stop there, though. Scared off a fence cutter on the Kerensky place.”
From "Worth" by A. LaFaye
“In the Fields of Fatherless Children,” the publisher writes: “examines the long shadow cast by the Vietnam War. Not just on the battlefield, but on the women, children, and rural communities that were left behind.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 8, 2026
He went on: “I mean, I knew he didn’t know who Bismarck was, or about the Franco-Prussian War. I said, ‘Do you mean the kaiser’s generals?
From Salon ● Oct. 23, 2024
“We saw that everything is possible. We saw that you can negotiate during a war, or a Cold War. You can negotiate with people you name terrorist, or dictator.”
From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2024
Civil War. 750,000 soldiers died in that war, according to recently revised estimates, and that's not including the tens of thousands of civilian casualties and the untold numbers of the injured.
From Scientific American ● Nov. 2, 2023
“The akofena. The Swords of War. Symbol of courage and bravery. For when you need to defend several places at once.”
From "Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky" by Kwame Mbalia
Traditional summer-camp activities, such as color wars, were quickly jettisoned for onstage interviews and meet-and-greets with Waters and his colleagues.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 20, 2026
The conflict in Ukraine is just one of the panoply of wars in recent years that have revealed once again the disastrous impact of conflict on cultural heritage.
From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026
I mean: measles, food contamination, wars, Michael Cohen, climate, education, immigration, healthcare and post partum psychosis is more than enough.
From Salon ● Sep. 18, 2026
The French president was speaking to journalists after meeting party leaders to discuss the security impact of the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine.
From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026
More than that, this war changed forever the way wars are fought and the way people think about the use of military power.
From "The War to End All Wars: World War I" by Russell Freedman
In his first term, he warred incessantly with public sector unions.
From Slate ● Mar. 12, 2025
Then, two titanic egos — Times publisher Harrison Gray Otis and railroad baron Henry Huntington — warred through their proxies in Congress, Huntington wanting the harbor in Santa Monica, and Otis in San Pedro.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 13, 2023
U.S. oil prices hit their lowest this year overnight as concerns over Chinese demand warred with talk of possible OPEC+ output cuts.
From Reuters ● Nov. 29, 2022
This invasion was codenamed Operation Barbarossa, after a medieval German king who warred with the Slavs.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2020
She was in the air, and the dreamlike unreality of floating warred with the gruesome truth beneath her.
From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor
Key disagreements remain between the warring sides on issues such as territory and security guarantees for Ukraine.
From BBC ● Sep. 5, 2026
Now officials are caught in a bind, with warring sections of the administration having a public fight over their chosen partner.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026
Lamar is also trying to deal with his identity as a Black man living in a community overrun by warring gangs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2026
Speaking on CNBC, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said a deal between the warring parties could be reached Tuesday or Wednesday.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 4, 2026
Coaxing the buttons through their holes was like reconciling warring friends, but I finally secured all five of them over my flat chest and belly, a task that was growing harder every day.
From "Flying Through Water" by Mamle Wolo
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
