noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of battlefield
Explanation
A place where fighting happens, especially during a war, can be called a battlefield. If you visit Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, you'll see a famous Civil War battlefield. There are many Civil War battlefields in the southern United States, and New England is the site of several Revolutionary War battlefields. While the physical land where a battle is fought is the most common kind of battlefield, there are also figurative battlefields, like a classroom in which competing ideas are angrily hashed out. The equivalent word in Old English is wælstow, or "slaughter-place."
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:
“Thunder is purpose-built for the new geometry of battlefield maneuver.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
The U.S. has been slow to adapt to the battlefield dominance of drones and cheap weapons, but the world’s most dynamic economy has the wit and technology to catch up if there’s enough political will.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026
"We started to suffer a lack of manpower on the battlefield, constant losses," he recalls.
From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026
Several African countries have in recent months reported that their citizens have been duped into fighting for the Russian army with many dying on the battlefield.
From Barron's ● Jul. 18, 2026
She urged her horses to Olympus and asked Zeus if she might drive that bane of men, Ares, from the battlefield.
From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton
The author of “Courage Can Save US” on true stories of self-sacrifice from battlefields at home and abroad.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026
They came to watch the sun as it set over the graveyard and battlefields behind it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
Combatants in other battlefields such as Ukraine are likely to suffer the consequences of the shortages that are now being deepened.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 28, 2026
Ukrainian researchers took soil samples from battlefields, in craters and around burned out tanks.
From BBC ● Mar. 13, 2026
There drummers who sounded the advance and retreat across the battlefields thumped upon the skins of their raucous instruments, judging the quality of the attack.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson
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.
