campaign

American  

[kam-peyn] / kæmˈpeɪn /

noun

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.

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verb (used without object)

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)

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

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

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

On the creation of our campaigns, the last couple of years on the Christmas campaign we used GenAI, and we did that at a fraction of the cost and way faster than we used to.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 28, 2026

"As part of the Identify Me campaign, the efforts of the French authorities have helped identify a murder victim whose case had remained open for many years."

From BBC • Apr. 28, 2026

The multi-year campaign, which has already raised $4 million of its $10 million goal, runs alongside the library’s own Central 100 Celebration, which kicked off in January.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 28, 2026

The campaign, which is estimated to cost $20,000, launched April 15 in Texas, and will soon expand to Florida, Pennsylvania and Iowa.

From Salon • Apr. 28, 2026

Jefferson was guilty of “the blackest calumny and foulest falsehoods” during that bitter campaign.

From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis

Related Words

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