cold war

[ kohld-wawr ]

/ ˈkoʊld ˈwɔr /

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noun

intense economic, political, military, and ideological rivalry between nations, short of military conflict; sustained hostile political policies and an atmosphere of strain between opposed countries.

a continuing state of resentful antagonism between two parties short of open hostility or violence.

(initial capital letters) rivalry after World War II between the Soviet Union and its satellites and the democratic countries of the Western world, under the leadership of the United States.

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QUIZ

THINGAMABOB OR THINGUMMY: CAN YOU DISTINGUISH BETWEEN THE US AND UK TERMS IN THIS QUIZ?

Do you know the difference between everyday US and UK terminology? Test yourself with this quiz on words that differ across the Atlantic.

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In the UK, COTTON CANDY is more commonly known as…

candystring

candyfloss

candypuff

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Words nearby cold war

cold sweat, cold tone, cold turkey, cold type, cold wall effect, cold war, cold warrior, cold-water, cold-water flat, cold wave, cold-weld

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use cold war in a sentence

The cold war radio extremists hit their listeners with a hammer of information.
Restoring the Fairness Doctrine can’t prevent another Rush Limbaugh|Heather Hendershot|February 19, 2021|Washington Post
Reading list“Trump-McConnell clash threatens to settle into a cold war as GOP eyes midterms,” by Mike DeBonis and Josh DawseyAn acquitted president goes after his acquitter.
The Trailer: The House Democrats’ campaign chief thinks his party can defy history|David Weigel|February 18, 2021|Washington Post
A “techonomic cold war” is already under way—an ongoing, often-invisible state of conflict at the intersection of technology and geopolitics.
The fragmentation of everything|Martha Leibs|December 4, 2020|MIT Technology Review
If we set ourselves up for a new cold war and there’s no ability to monitor actual events in China, I think we could very well miss opportunities to have better outcomes in the long term.
The human cost of a WeChat ban: severing a hundred million ties|Karen Hao|August 13, 2020|MIT Technology Review

That’s gotten us to a bad point where, as we’ve noted, the bipartisan fusion consensus now is that we’re in a great power competition, a cold war with China.
Will Covid-19 Spark a Cold War (or Worse) With China? (Ep. 414)|Stephen J. Dubner|April 23, 2020|Freakonomics
Cold War fears could be manipulated through misleading art to attract readers to daunting material.
How Pulp Fiction Saved Literature|Wendy Smith|January 8, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Accusing his opponents of being locked in a Cold War mind-set, it is Stone who is beholden to old orthodoxies.
Oliver Stone’s Latest Dictator Suckup|James Kirchick|January 5, 2015|DAILY BEAST
The U.S. responded to security threats with cool heads and plenty of expertise in WWII and the Cold War.
Why Did We Panic After 9/11 and Ignore All We Knew About Responding to Security Threats?|Deborah Pearlstein|December 18, 2014|DAILY BEAST
After 18 months of secret talks, the president announces a diplomatic breakthrough that ends the last fight of the Cold War.
Obama Realizes What 10 Presidents Didn’t: Isolating Cuba Doesn’t Work|Christopher Dickey|December 18, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The thaw between Washington and Cuba finally begins to close a chapter of the Cold War.
Did The U.S.-Cuba Deal Help Drive A Rebel Ceasefire in Colombia?|Richard McColl|December 18, 2014|DAILY BEAST
This happening was not—repeat, was not—in any way associated with the cold war of such long standing.
Operation Terror|William Fitzgerald Jenkins
And we have a cold war with only one country, and they're the only ones who'd play a deadly trick like this.
Operation Terror|William Fitzgerald Jenkins
The cold war ends, Lockley, because there couldn't be a conquering army in the modern sense.
Operation Terror|William Fitzgerald Jenkins
In the two camera-cases Coburn was sure that he had the cryptic device that was responsible for the failure of a cold-war raid.
The Invaders|William Fitzgerald Jenkins
Without oil we cant carry on this cold war or kid the peasants much longer.
Satan and the Comrades|Ralph Bennitt

British Dictionary definitions for cold war

cold war

noun

a state of political hostility and military tension between two countries or power blocs, involving propaganda, subversion, threats, economic sanctions, and other measures short of open warfare, esp that between the American and Soviet blocs after World War II (the Cold War)

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Cultural definitions for cold war

cold war

A constant nonviolent state of hostility between the Soviet Union and the United States. The cold war began shortly after World War II, with the rapid extension of Soviet influence over eastern Europe and North Korea. With the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, the cold war ended. (See Berlin airlift, Berlin wall (see also Berlin wall), and Iron Curtain.)

cold war

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British Dictionary definitions for cold war

Cultural definitions for cold war