guerrilla

Or gue·ril·la

[guh-ril-uh]

noun

1. a member of a band of irregular soldiers that uses guerrilla warfare, harassing the enemy by surprise raids, sabotaging communication and supply lines, etc.

adjective

1. pertaining to such fighters or their technique of warfare: guerrilla tactics.

   guerrilla strongholds;

   guerrilla tactics.

2. of or relating to an unauthorized, edgy, or disruptive version of an activity: guerilla gardening to beautify an abandoned lot.

   guerrilla filmmaking on a busy sidewalk;

   guerilla gardening to beautify an abandoned lot.

guerrilla

/ ɡəˈrɪlə /

noun

1. 1. a member of an irregular usually politically motivated armed force that combats stronger regular forces, such as the army or police

   2. ( as modifier )

      guerrilla warfare

2. a form of vegetative spread in which the advance is from several individual rhizomes or stolons growing rapidly away from the centre, as in some clovers Compare phalanx

Other Word Forms

• guerrillaism noun
• antiguerrilla noun
• counterguerrilla adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of guerrilla¹

First recorded in 1800–10; from Spanish, diminutive of guerra “war” (of Germanic origin) + -illa diminutive suffix; originally in reference to the Spanish resistance against Napoleon; the name for the struggle erroneously taken as a personal noun; war ¹, -elle

Word History and Origins

Origin of guerrilla¹

C19: from Spanish, diminutive of guerra _war

Example Sentences

The Caracol report focuses on Diaz, a former guerrilla chief known by the alias Calarca who now leads a dissident armed group.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

At a morgue in central Colombia, a young woman mourned her brother, a 16-year-old who was kidnapped by guerrillas and killed in a government bombing last week, she said.

Read more on Barron's

Colombian military strikes targeting guerrilla fighters have claimed the lives of 12 children since last month, all of them abducted by the same armed groups in the soldiers' crosshairs, authorities said Monday.

Read more on Barron's

The 1987 movie features Schwarzenegger’s Dutch leading a multiracial band of bros on a black ops mission to eliminate guerrillas in a Central American jungle, only to be butchered by an invisible stalker from space.

Read more on Salon

One museum visitor from Ireland who saw the piece on 29 October said they thought it might have been "performance art", but then "quickly realised that this was a guerrilla piece".

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• commando 
• mercenary 
• terrorist