guerrilla

American  

[guh-ril-uh] / gəˈrɪl ə /

Or guerilla

noun

guerrillas plural

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.

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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 British  

/ 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

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• antiguerrilla
  noun
• guerrillaism
  noun
• counterguerrilla
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• guerrillas
  plural

Etymology

Origin of guerrilla

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; cf. war ¹, -elle

Explanation

If your brother says he’s going to become a guerrilla, he's not planning to become a hairy animal. Guerrilla fighters band together in a small underground army, usually trying to overcome a larger and more organized force. Guerrilla and gorilla are pronounced the same — which makes it easy to remember how to say guerrilla — but they have different meanings. In Spanish, guerra means "war" and guerrilla means “little army.” Guerrilla fighters tend to work in small groups and use ambush and sabotage to surprise stronger, more traditional forces. You might have heard of Che Guevara, a famous guerrilla fighter who was involved in the Cuban Revolution.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

guerrilla guerrillas

Culture Clash — which includes members Montoya, Ric Salinas and Herbert Sigüenza — arrived on the scene as a guerrilla sketch theater group from the San Francisco Mission District in 1984.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 24, 2026

The Granma expedition marked the start of a guerrilla war that swept Batista from power and ushered in over six decades of socialism.

From Barron's ● Jun. 23, 2026

So viewers were understandably skeptical that the corporation had lovingly funded an anti-corporate guerrilla comedy special only to immediately suppress its circulation online.

From Salon ● May 27, 2026

Gallrein is close to Louisville in a county that features multiple distilleries and a history of Confederate guerrilla violence during the Civil War.

From Slate ● May 19, 2026

Are you so low-ranking that you don’t know I was pretending to be the guerrilla leader Jen all along?

From "Among the Hidden" by Margaret Peterson Haddix

For generations, these documents were little more than family heirlooms that served as painful reminders of fortunes lost after the revolution led by Fidel Castro’s bearded guerrillas.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026

Petro tried unsuccessfully to negotiate peace with criminal groups, but experts say guerrillas used the talks to grow in strength.

From Barron's ● Jun. 25, 2026

He was alluding to the 1992 accord that ended the war between a US-backed right-wing government and leftist guerrillas supported by Cuba.

From Barron's ● Mar. 5, 2026

During the show, the guerrillas made a pound of gold selling beer, the band members said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 25, 2026

For the next few days, the guerrillas stuck to narrow jungle footpaths, moving at a steady jog to avoid any of the American or South Vietnamese patrols in the area.

From "Boots on the Ground: America's War in Vietnam" by Elizabeth Partridge

Related Words

• commando
• mercenary
• terrorist