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:
Meanwhile, he will have to capitalise on Ukraine's remarkable technological advances and the burgeoning tech defence industry that has spearheaded Ukraine's recent battlefield successes.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
“Thunder is purpose-built for the new geometry of battlefield maneuver.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
The battlefield efficacy in Ukraine of drones powered by software and AI has more recently helped trigger a spending spree by a U.S. military still largely reliant on the weapons of yesterday’s wars.
From The Wall Street Journal ● 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
Billy Lee held Washington’s horse on the battlefield, and when one of Washington’s mounts fell in the heat of battle at Monmouth, New Jersey, Billy Lee was there with another.
From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis
"UK soldiers will be better prepared for modern warfare with a new training system that uses AI, advanced analytics and virtual environments to ready troops for rapidly evolving battlefields," it said.
From BBC ● Jul. 10, 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
A large garage in the center has a stockpile of various types of drones, including small combat drones that were downed on the battlefields in Ukraine and brought to the facility by visiting Ukrainians.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 28, 2026
In turn, Germany was pushed to the edge of starvation, despite its relative food self-sufficiency, because Britain’s counter-blockade worsened the domestic fact that horses and farmers were sent from grainfields to the battlefields.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 16, 2026
While William Faulkner sweated in California trying to imagine what their lives must be like, hundreds of young airwomen were flying and fighting and dying over the battlefields of the Soviet Union.
From "A Thousand Sisters" by Elizabeth Wein
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.
