battleground
Americannoun
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the area where a battle is fought in a war; battlefield.
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a subject of discourse or area of activity characterized by much conflict.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Explanation
A battleground is a piece of land on which a war or battle is fought. You can visit many of the battlegrounds of the US Civil War. The literal meaning of battleground is just what it sounds like: the ground on which a battle has been waged. You can also use the word for the site of a figurative battle, like an election or a vote on a controversial issue. "Battleground states" are those in which the vote between two parties could swing either way, since neither holds a firm majority.
Vocabulary lists containing battleground
25 Words from "Baseball and Black History"
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"The Vietnam Wars" by Tod Olson
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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:
Let the body remember that it is more than a battleground.
From Salon ● Jul. 20, 2026
But the former health secretary seemed keen to sketch out the battleground and strike the first blows, in a "battle of ideas" over the party's future direction.
From BBC ● Jun. 16, 2026
At ASCO, promising early-stage data from Pfizer and the BMS-BioNTech partnership proved that this new drug class is the next major battleground in oncology.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 6, 2026
Across the city, certain battleground precincts were so tight that no single candidate had a lead as of Wednesday’s count, on which The Times’ analysis was based.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2026
I see that the future of the human race is a battleground that Stephen has won a point and my father has lost one.
From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood
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"Too many countries are retreating into geopolitical blocs or the battlegrounds of protectionism," he said, but added: "In every rupture resides the responsibility to build -- nostalgia is not a strategy."
From Barron's ● Nov. 23, 2025
Years before the U.S. military set off for battlegrounds in Cuba and the Philippines, rebels in both places had begun to fight for independence from the decrepit Spanish empire.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 5, 2025
People visiting the Gettysburg battlegrounds or historic district often report seeing spirits still dressed in uniform wandering about town.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 27, 2025
But I and millions of Americans do remember them for fierceness in their respective battlegrounds, a steeliness any sailor should aspire to.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2025
Kennedy and his crew had been patrolling passages in the Solomon Islands of the South Pacific, one of many World War II battlegrounds between the United States and Japan.
From "Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown" by Steve Sheinkin
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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.