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

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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

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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

County formalized a local brigade program — which has existed in various forms as guerrilla groups of good Samaritans for decades — in 2023.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 17, 2026

The BBC's security correspondent Frank Gardner explains how Houthis' precision strikes and guerrilla tactics have made it difficult for Saudi forces to gain the upper hand.

From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2026

Museveni has kept his own views on the succession quiet, but as a former guerrilla army leader, many assume he favours his son.

From Barron's ● Aug. 27, 2026

Born in 1954 in Masjed Soleyman in southwestern Iran and trained as a mechanical engineer, Rezaei joined al-Mansouroun, a guerrilla group fighting the Shah’s regime that became a proving ground for Iran’s future security establishment.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026

Taking me to a therapist’s office without telling me was basically an act of guerrilla warfare, and I promised myself right then that I’m never going to do this ambush stuff to my kids.

From "The Science of Breakable Things" by Tae Keller

Okuda also once crossed a jungle to meet leftist guerrillas in the Philippines when he ran Toyota's local operations there in the early 1970s, Bloomberg News reported.

From Barron's ● Aug. 12, 2026

The nation now openly mocks the bearded guerrillas, including Fidel Castro, and their generation.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 12, 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

That is 55% more than in 2000, when the U.S. began providing Colombia billions in equipment and training to roll back drug production and Marxist guerrillas.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 22, 2026

After several days, one of the guerrillas began questioning him again on a rest break.

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

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