arms race

American  

noun

1. competition between countries to achieve superiority in quantity and quality of military arms.

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arms race British  

noun

1. the continuing competitive attempt by two or more nations each to have available to it more and more powerful weapons than the other(s)

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Etymology

Origin of arms race

First recorded in 1935–40

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

arms race

This evolving and now possibly accelerating arms race in space should come as no surprise.

From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026

The AI build-out has emerged as one of the U.S. economy’s steadfast sources of growth, a tentpole for the global capital markets and the primary battleground in America’s ongoing technology arms race with China.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026

It says out-of-control AI will lead to the apocalypse, with the dire warning coming from an Anthropic researcher, Jacob Coxon, who quit the company fearing the tech arms race is moving too quickly.

From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2026

There’s a question historians will one day ask of this era: Who started the global nuclear arms race?

From Salon ● Aug. 23, 2026

In the 1970s, when Ken Seacrest first began his training to join the ranks of America's spies, the pace of the arms race quickened.

From "Spies: The Secret Showdown Between America and Russia" by Marc Favreau