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• civil war
  civil war

  noun

  a war between political factions or regions within the same country.
• Civil War
  Civil War

  noun

  English history the conflict between Charles I and the Parliamentarians resulting from disputes over their respective prerogatives. Parliament gained decisive victories at Marston Moor in 1644 and Naseby in 1645, and Charles was executed in 1649

civil war

American  

[siv-uhl wawr] / ˈsɪv əl ˈwɔr /

noun

• civil wars
  plural

1. a war between political factions or regions within the same country.

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civil war ¹ British  

noun

1. war between parties, factions, or inhabitants of different regions within the same nation

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Civil War ² British  

noun

1. English history the conflict between Charles I and the Parliamentarians resulting from disputes over their respective prerogatives. Parliament gained decisive victories at Marston Moor in 1644 and Naseby in 1645, and Charles was executed in 1649

2. history the war fought from 1861 to 1865 between the North and the South, sparked off by Lincoln's election as president but with deep-rooted political and economic causes, exacerbated by the slavery issue. The advantages of the North in terms of population, finance, and communications brought about the South's eventual surrender at Appomattox

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Civil War Cultural  

1. The war fought in the United States between northern (Union) and southern (Confederate) states from 1861 to 1865, in which the Confederacy sought to establish itself as a separate nation. The Civil War is also known as the War for Southern Independence and as the War between the States. The war grew out of deep-seated differences between the social structure and economy of North and South, most notably over slavery; generations of political maneuvers had been unable to overcome these differences (see Missouri Compromise and Compromise of 1850). The secession of the southern states began in late 1860, after Abraham Lincoln was elected president. The Confederacy was formed in early 1861. The fighting began with the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter. Most of the battles took place in the South, but one extremely crucial episode, the Battle of Gettysburg, was fought in the North. The war ended with the surrender of General Robert E. Lee to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House. (See Battle of Bull Run, Battle of Chancellorsville, Emancipation Proclamation, and Sherman's march to the sea.)

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The Civil War has been the most serious test yet of the ability of the United States to remain one nation.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• civil wars
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of civil war

First recorded in 1540–50

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

civil war Civil War

Yemen has been devastated by a civil war that began in 2014, when the Houthis ousted the internationally-recognised government from Sanaa.

From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2026

Omar’s family was granted asylum in the United States in 1995, having spent years in Kenyan refugee camps after emigrating from Somalia due to the country’s civil war.

From Slate ● Oct. 13, 2026

The cunning, determined, rhetorically skillful Odysseus, long absent from his kingdom after a devastating war, becomes the devilishly clever Satan, cast down from his original home after the angelic civil war in heaven.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026

Min Aung Hlaing has been a pariah in many capitals abroad since his putsch unleashed a civil war, but Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim invited him for talks about returning 5,000 Myanmar migrants.

From Barron's ● Oct. 7, 2026

For Cleopatra, luck came in the form of the civil war being waged between Caesar and Pompey, the two generals who now ruled Rome.

From "Sterling Biographies®: Cleopatra: Egypt's Last and Greatest Queen" by Susan Blackaby

“To write a film about Lorca and the Civil War called for something refreshing, something pop, something that entices you to look at the screen, something new — and he has it.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 15, 2026

Jay Cooke, the titanic banker of his era, sold the bonds that helped the North win the Civil War.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 29, 2026

Plans for a Potomac crossing date to before the Civil War, and various monumental arches were proposed in Washington during the late 19th century.

From Salon ● Sep. 20, 2026

Much of the novel comes in the form of chatter among the cemetery’s ghostly residents, and the novel’s depiction of this graveyard cacophony reflects the chaos of the Civil War, raging all the while.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026

As the months passed, the Civil War, imagined as potentially quick, became long-term reality for the American people.

From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock

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