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:
Later, he led a successful fundraising campaign called the Army of Drones and brought in elements of "gamification" to the war, designing a system that awarded Ukrainian military units with credits for hitting Russian targets.
From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026
Goldman Sachs warned last week that diesel faces a greater risk of persistent scarcity than crude as winter approaches, noting the market was already tight before the Iran war began.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026
The war in Iran remains at a stalemate, with no end in sight.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 18, 2026
The memorandum expired Monday and efforts to end the war appear to be at a standstill.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026
We used to listen to the radio every evening, Mutti and I. All through the war we had done this, listening for news from the particular battlefront where we thought Papi was fighting.
From "An Elephant in the Garden" by Michael Morpurgo
“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
"Maybe, I am a little tired," he admits, "but it's my work. I believe we can win this war. We have to do it."
From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026
"This is a long process. Ukraine is at war. It has organised crime issues to solve. It would be the third biggest country in the EU," a European diplomat told AFP on condition of anonymity.
From Barron's ● Jun. 15, 2026
"He just doesn't want to end the war. I think that many in the world were disappointed by this answer," he wrote on Telegram.
From BBC ● Jun. 5, 2026
“I meant they’re the best at waging war. You’ll thank your lucky stars if this country is ever attacked. They’re the greatest fighting force in the whole world.”
From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy
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
“She was a peace advocate before she met my father and was instrumental in him speaking out against the Vietnam War. Please understand…my mama was a force.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 10, 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
“I’m urging the Canadian government to recognize that California doesn’t agree with these tariff wars, to lift these restrictions and increase consumer options to strengthen both our economies.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026
"Even wars have rules. One of those is that health must be protected!"
From Barron's ● Aug. 9, 2026
For 58 seasons, through wars, impeachments and the corporate dismantling of the network news business around it, “60 Minutes” remained America’s highest-rated newsmagazine.
From Salon ● Aug. 8, 2026
And amid the ongoing fast-food discount wars, analysts note that Wendy’s value menu has perhaps gotten too complex.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 8, 2026
Yet it was at that moment of maximum affluence that the Roman political order collapsed into a series of deadly civil wars.
From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari
In the present, we’ve warred over a proposed gondola to carry Dodgers fans from Union Station to Dodger Stadium.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 3, 2025
In his first term, he warred incessantly with public sector unions.
From Slate ● Mar. 12, 2025
Following Alexander’s death in 323 BCE, his generals warred with each other over control of the empire and eventually divided the vast territory among themselves.
From Textbooks ● Apr. 19, 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
Fury and puzzlement warred within him, and he spoke.
From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
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
After more than a decade of posturing and power struggles - a soap opera of warring promoters, shifting managers, fractured television deals and failed negotiations - it has finally come down to this.
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
His people are ancient and few, a clan whose kinship with nature left them vulnerable to warring nobles who all but wiped them out.
From Salon ● Jul. 22, 2026
But a foreign ministry spokesman for mediator Pakistan, which hosted an initial round of talks between the warring parties, said it had not "lost hope" in a negotiated resolution.
From Barron's ● Jun. 11, 2026
“The Northern Alliance is bringing together warring factions to resist the Taliban. Shamim was telling me the rumors he overheard in the market.”
From "Shooting Kabul" by N. H. Senzai
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.
