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

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

“They’re guerrilla, not asking for permission, just doing what they wanted to do with the help of their collective efforts,” esparza said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2026

Under the departing President Gustavo Petro, a former leftist guerrilla, the government embarked on simultaneous peace negotiations with about a dozen narco-trafficking groups to urge them to disarm and abandon drug smuggling.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026

Comedy duo Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol used guerrilla filmmaking and footage they shot in the mid-aughts to create a time-travel caper about their characters’ quest to play the ultimate gig.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 26, 2026

A. H. Lacson, a journalist for The Manila Times and former guerrilla scout, makes a trip to Tala Leprosarium to see things for himself.

From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly

In February, the guards rescued former vice-presidential candidate and Indigenous leader Aida Quilcue, who was kidnapped and held for several hours by guerrillas in Cauca.

From Barron's ● Oct. 23, 2026

The trek takes Etna across a bombed-out city and into a mountain range occupied by refugees and guerrillas.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026

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

Since the coup, some of Myanmar's myriad ethnic minority factions have banded with pro-democracy guerrillas to fight the armed forces.

From Barron's ● Jul. 18, 2026

The guerrillas live in the hills and mountains, where grass grows up to fifteen feet high, tearing clothes to shreds and cutting through the skin like razors.

From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly

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