prewar

[pree-wawr]

adjective

1. before the war.

   prewar prices.

prewar

/ ˈpriːˌwɔː, ˌpriːˈwɔː /

adjective

1. of or occurring in the period before a war, esp before World War I or II

Word History and Origins

Origin of prewar¹

First recorded in 1905–10; pre- + war ¹

Example Sentences

Most of Hamas’s prewar senior leadership has been killed by Israel, and heavy fighting had fragmented the group’s lines of command.

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These elites were the East Coast merchants who had prospered from the prewar Atlantic commercial boom that helped plant capitalism’s roots in North America.

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She bought her first apartment in a prewar building on the Upper West Side soon after.

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“The Asia Co. was one of the businesses in our community prewar, and because he did so much business with Japan, I think he was lumped in, like maybe he was one of the spies.”

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After more than two years of Russia’s assault on Ukraine, street life in Kyiv — more than 200 miles from the nearest front line in the country’s east — is mostly back to its prewar vitality.

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