campaign

American  

[kam-peyn] / kæmˈpeɪn /

noun

• campaigns
  plural

1. the competition by rival political candidates and organizations for public office.

2. a systematic course of aggressive activities for some specific purpose.

   a sales campaign.

   Synonyms:

   offensive, push, effort, drive

3. Military.

   1. military operations for a specific objective.

   2. Obsolete. the military operations of an army in the field for one season.

4. a story in a role-playing game, spread out over multiple play sessions, that usually keeps the same plot, setting, or main characters.

   Last week we finished our campaign and I already miss it.

---

verb (used without object)

• campaigns,
  present (3rd person singular)
• campaigned,
  past participle,  past
• campaigning
  present participle

1. to serve in or go on a campaign.

   He planned to campaign for the candidate.

   My daughter has been campaigning for a later curfew for months.

verb (used with object)

• campaigns,
  present (3rd person singular)
• campaigned,
  past participle,  past
• campaigning
  present participle

1. to race (a horse, boat, car, etc.) in a number or series of competitions.

campaign British  

/ kæmˈpeɪn /

noun

1. a series of coordinated activities, such as public speaking and demonstrating, designed to achieve a social, political, or commercial goal

   a presidential campaign

   an advertising campaign

2. military a number of complementary operations aimed at achieving a single objective, usually constrained by time or geographic area

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verb

1. to conduct, serve in, or go on a campaign

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• campaigner
  noun
• countercampaign
  noun
• precampaign
  noun
• recampaign
  verb
• uncampaigning
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• campaigns
  plural

Participles

• campaigning
  present
• campaigned
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• campaign
  simple
• campaigns
  simple
• have campaigned
  perfect
• has campaigned
  perfect
• am campaigning
  progressive
• are campaigning
  progressive
• is campaigning
  progressive
• have been campaigning
  perfect progressive
• has been campaigning
  perfect progressive

Past

• campaigned
  simple
• had campaigned
  perfect
• was campaigning
  progressive
• were campaigning
  progressive
• had been campaigning
  perfect progressive

Future

• will campaign
  simple
• will have campaigned
  perfect
• will be campaigning
  progressive
• will have been campaigning
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of campaign

First recorded in 1620–30; from French campagne, from Italian campagna, from Late Latin campānia “level district,” equivalent to Latin camp(us) “field” + -ān(us) -an + -ia -ia

Explanation

A campaign is any series of actions or events that are meant to achieve a particular result, like an advertising campaign of television commercials and Internet ads that tries to convince kids to buy bubble gum-flavored toothpaste. The noun campaign describes any group of actions that are done with an ultimate purpose in mind. The goal of a political campaign is to put a candidate in office. The goal of a military campaign might be to take over a city, as in General Sherman's Civil War campaign to capture Atlanta. Campaign can also be used as a verb, like when an environmental organization campaigns to prevent a developer from building a shopping mall by asking people to sign petitions and soliciting their members of congress.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

campaign campaigns campaigned campaigning

But his promotion was accelerated when Charlie was sent to prison in Alabama in 2005 after pleading guilty to tax evasion and making illegal campaign contributions.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026

Farage did not attend the results, saying Essex Police had warned him that an "organised campaign to disrupt and degrade the result" was planned.

From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026

Once the result is known, and with the possibility of an appeal to follow, Southampton will be a significant way into their campaign.

From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026

During his 2012 presidential campaign, Mitt Romney disclosed that his IRA held as much as $101 million.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026

For Jim Kim, this marked a victory in the long campaign to push down the price of second-line TB treatment and make it available to poor countries everywhere.

From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French

Organisers of the Eurovision Song Contest are proposing major rule changes to discourage voting campaigns that aim to influence the results.

From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026

"Behind every one of these campaigns is a simple argument... that a ballot is worth casting even when you know how the night ends," he writes on his website.

From Barron's ● Aug. 12, 2026

The company attributed the electronics margin decline to investments behind new campaigns and forecast a recovery this quarter, they add.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026

McDonald’s becomes not merely something Trump eats or campaigns beside, but part of the visual vocabulary through which people understand him.

From Salon ● Aug. 12, 2026

Media campaigns would be unleashed in an effort to overturn the punitive public consensus on race.

From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander

"Since the attack, Assi has campaigned for justice for Abdallah's killing, advocated for journalist safety, and supported a rehabilitation program for people with similar life-altering injuries."

From Barron's ● Aug. 5, 2026

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani successfully campaigned as a DSA member in 2025.

From Salon ● Jul. 26, 2026

“Tariffs is probably the key policy issue for this President. I mean, something he campaigned on, he ran on, he cared an enormous amount about,” Justice Kagan said, according to Politico.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026

Jackson, who campaigned heavily with Platner before the scandals, had the support of roughly 75 percent of the volunteers who rallied behind the now-disgraced former Senate candidate.

From Slate ● Jul. 24, 2026

He would later give an interview to a local paper, estimating that during the six or so months he campaigned for Congress, he spent less than four full days at home with me and Malia.

From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama

“There’s going to be a lot of campaigning, apparently on the no side especially. So we’ll see,” he said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026

It actually happened this week, after what felt like 47 years of campaigning.

From Slate ● Aug. 8, 2026

Both candidates said they are campaigning up and down California, but Skelton said neither has enough money to mount a statewide campaign that would substantially raise their name awareness.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2026

A petition in defense of Arday put together by the progressive campaigning group the Good Law Project was signed by 16,000 people, including the leader of the Green Party.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026

While he had been out campaigning for the “Southern way of life” all those years, she had been left to raise the children.

From "The Best of Enemies" by Osha Gray Davidson

Related Words

• crusade
• drive
• fight
• movement
• offensive
• operation
• push