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• civil war
  civil war

  noun

  a war between political factions or regions within the same country.
• Civil War
  Civil War

  noun

  English history the conflict between Charles I and the Parliamentarians resulting from disputes over their respective prerogatives. Parliament gained decisive victories at Marston Moor in 1644 and Naseby in 1645, and Charles was executed in 1649

civil war

American  

[siv-uhl wawr] / ˈsɪv əl ˈwɔr /

noun

• civil wars
  plural

1. a war between political factions or regions within the same country.

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civil war ¹ British  

noun

1. war between parties, factions, or inhabitants of different regions within the same nation

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Civil War ² British  

noun

1. English history the conflict between Charles I and the Parliamentarians resulting from disputes over their respective prerogatives. Parliament gained decisive victories at Marston Moor in 1644 and Naseby in 1645, and Charles was executed in 1649

2. history the war fought from 1861 to 1865 between the North and the South, sparked off by Lincoln's election as president but with deep-rooted political and economic causes, exacerbated by the slavery issue. The advantages of the North in terms of population, finance, and communications brought about the South's eventual surrender at Appomattox

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Civil War Cultural  

1. The war fought in the United States between northern (Union) and southern (Confederate) states from 1861 to 1865, in which the Confederacy sought to establish itself as a separate nation. The Civil War is also known as the War for Southern Independence and as the War between the States. The war grew out of deep-seated differences between the social structure and economy of North and South, most notably over slavery; generations of political maneuvers had been unable to overcome these differences (see Missouri Compromise and Compromise of 1850). The secession of the southern states began in late 1860, after Abraham Lincoln was elected president. The Confederacy was formed in early 1861. The fighting began with the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter. Most of the battles took place in the South, but one extremely crucial episode, the Battle of Gettysburg, was fought in the North. The war ended with the surrender of General Robert E. Lee to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House. (See Battle of Bull Run, Battle of Chancellorsville, Emancipation Proclamation, and Sherman's march to the sea.)

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The Civil War has been the most serious test yet of the ability of the United States to remain one nation.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• civil wars
  plural

Etymology

Origin of civil war

First recorded in 1540–50

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

civil war Civil War

Yemen has been devastated by a civil war that began in 2014, when the Houthis ousted the government from the capital, Sanaa.

From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2026

The kingdom’s leaders worried about getting enmeshed again in Yemen after thousands of bombing runs during the civil war failed to dislodge the group and led to attacks on its own energy infrastructure.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026

It was the worst attack by the Houthis since a four-year truce in Yemen's long-running civil war unravelled in July.

From Barron's ● Sep. 8, 2026

He arrived in the U.S. at age 19, just over two years after he was forced to join the Salvadoran army at the outbreak of the nation’s brutal civil war.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026

How there hadn’t been any government to help them after the civil war, so they’d banded together.

From "Two Degrees" by Alan Gratz

In “A Moment in the Sun,” Shane White has created a remarkable portrait of black life in Manhattan that reveals the possibilities and limits of freedom during the 50 years preceding the Civil War.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 13, 2026

The slavocrats’ abuse of the Postal Service ended only with the Civil War.

From Slate ● Sep. 4, 2026

On Aug. 21 the Pentagon fired the publisher, editor-in-chief and a reporter at Stars and Stripes, the military newspaper that has been reporting on American troops since the Civil War.

From Salon ● Aug. 29, 2026

The Civil War then gave new meaning to Key’s verses as the Union’s anthem while the Confederacy embraced “Dixie.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 23, 2026

Soon after the Civil War, the Freedmen’s Bureau established schools for blacks, a task also undertaken by many churches and missionary societies.

From "The Best of Enemies" by Osha Gray Davidson