war
noun
a conflict carried on by force of arms, as between nations or between parties within a nation; warfare, as by land, sea, or air.
war
1 American
[wawr]
/ wɔr /
noun
-
wars
plural
-
a conflict carried on by force of arms, as between nations or between parties within a nation; warfare, as by land, sea, or air.
-
a state or period of armed hostility or active military operations.
The two nations were at war with each other.
-
a contest carried on by force of arms, as in a series of battles or campaigns.
the War of 1812.
-
armed fighting, as a science, profession, activity, or art; methods or principles of waging armed conflict.
War is the soldier's business.
-
active hostility or contention; conflict; contest.
a war of words.
-
aggressive business conflict, as through severe price cutting in the same industry or any other means of undermining competitors.
a fare war among airlines; a trade war between nations.
-
a struggle to achieve a goal.
the war on cancer;
a war against poverty;
a war for hearts and minds.
-
Cards.
-
a game for two or more persons, played with a 52-card pack evenly divided between the players, in which each player turns up one card at a time with the higher card taking the lower, and in which, when both turned up cards match, each player lays one card face down and turns up another, the player with the higher card of the second turn taking all the cards laid down.
-
an occasion in this game when both turned up cards match.
-
-
Archaic. a battle.
verb (used without object)
-
wars,
present (3rd person singular)
-
warred,
past participle, past
-
warring
present participle
-
to make or carry on war; fight.
to war with a neighboring nation.
-
to carry on active hostility or contention.
Throughout her life she warred with sin and corruption.
-
to be in conflict or in a state of strong opposition.
The temptation warred with his conscience.
adjective
war
2
American
[wahr]
/ wɑr /
adjective
Scot. and North England.
war.
3
American
abbreviation
war
1
British
/ wɔː /
noun
-
open armed conflict between two or more parties, nations, or states
-
a particular armed conflict
the 1973 war in the Middle East
-
the techniques of armed conflict as a study, science, or profession
-
any conflict or contest
a war of wits
the war against crime
-
(modifier) of, relating to, resulting from, or characteristic of war
a war hero
war damage
a war story
-
to have made the most of the opportunities presented to one during wartime
-
informal (esp of a child) hurt or knocked about, esp as a result of quarrelling and fighting
verb
War.
2
British
abbreviation
war
Idioms
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
warsimple
-
warssimple
-
have warredperfect
-
has warredperfect
-
am warringprogressive
-
are warringprogressive
-
is warringprogressive
-
have been warringperfect progressive
-
has been warringperfect progressive
Past
-
warredsimple
-
had warredperfect
-
was warringprogressive
-
were warringprogressive
-
had been warringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of war1
First recorded before 1150; Middle English noun wer(re), war(re), late Old English werre, wyrre, from Old North French wer(r)e, waire, from Old Frankish werra (unrecorded), from Germanic; cognate with Old High German werra, Middle Low German, Middle Dutch werre “strife, discord”; verb derivative of the noun; akin to war 2, worse
Origin of war2
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English wer(re), war(re), from Old Norse verri worse
Explanation
War is armed combat between two or more countries or between different groups of people within the same country. As the soul singer Edwin Starr asked, "War! Huh! What is it good for?" Absolutely nothing. The term "civil war" means not that the war is courteous and polite, but that it is between citizens of the same nation or community, as in the American Civil War. Often war refers to nonmilitary combat or tension, such as between angry neighbors, or rival sports teams, or between different social classes — as in "class war," or government policies such as the "war on drugs."
Vocabulary lists containing war
Memorial Day: Words of Respect and Remembrance
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Part 1 Vocabulary (Unit 1)
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Gather Vocabulary Knowledge, Unit 1
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Gas prices in the U.S. have soared during the seven-month Iran war, with the national average for a gallon of diesel reaching $6.37 on Friday, according to AAA.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 3, 2026
We hold onto each other like he’s headed off to war.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2026
Returning to Europe in 1950, he shot political posters, cyclists in motion and children playing, often among the ruins of war.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
Peace negotiations to bring an end to the war have also stalled.
From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2026
Then, as the war dragged on, year after year, Papi came home less and less.
From "An Elephant in the Garden" by Michael Morpurgo
“Well, hopefully we are toward the end of the war. They want to make a deal, we’ll see how that works out,” the president told reporters on Wednesday evening.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 17, 2026
What he said: “I didn’t guarantee no war. Why would I have built the strongest military in the world?”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026
"Iran is trying to avoid another full-scale war. But it also believes that failing to respond carries its own risks because it would project weakness and invite further pressure," she said.
From Barron's ● Jul. 8, 2026
“You got us into a war. You didn’t consult us. You didn’t listen to us. Nothing,” he said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 4, 2026
"Collecting orphans? Does that lift an ounce of guilt? You have been among mortals too long. Gods should not suffer guilt. You are the goddess of war. Celebrate!"
From "City of the Plague God" by Sarwat Chadda
“In the Fields of Fatherless Children,” the publisher writes: “examines the long shadow cast by the Vietnam War. Not just on the battlefield, but on the women, children, and rural communities that were left behind.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 8, 2026
He went on: “I mean, I knew he didn’t know who Bismarck was, or about the Franco-Prussian War. I said, ‘Do you mean the kaiser’s generals?
From Salon ● Oct. 23, 2024
“We saw that everything is possible. We saw that you can negotiate during a war, or a Cold War. You can negotiate with people you name terrorist, or dictator.”
From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2024
Civil War. 750,000 soldiers died in that war, according to recently revised estimates, and that's not including the tens of thousands of civilian casualties and the untold numbers of the injured.
From Scientific American ● Nov. 2, 2023
“Originally it appears in a book by Sun Tzu called The Art of War. It comes at the end of the third chapter.”
From "The Mysterious Benedict Society" by Trenton Lee Stewart
Now a respected New Yorker magazine writer promoting his forthcoming book on the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Michael is contacted by Lou, who has been flailing since returning to the States.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
That transparency let it borrow more cheaply, and cheaper borrowing helped it win wars.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 29, 2026
"The pandemic, the cost of living and the wars going on around the world accelerated that decision in New York, and that's where we are now with London," Friedman said.
From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026
The planned offering comes amid heightened investor interest in drone technology, with unmanned aerial vehicles dominating wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026
The friendly chap from the newsstand sports an officer’s uniform from a couple of wars ago.
From "The Bletchley Riddle" by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin
In the present, we’ve warred over a proposed gondola to carry Dodgers fans from Union Station to Dodger Stadium.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 3, 2025
In his first term, he warred incessantly with public sector unions.
From Slate ● Mar. 12, 2025
U.S. oil prices hit their lowest this year overnight as concerns over Chinese demand warred with talk of possible OPEC+ output cuts.
From Reuters ● Nov. 29, 2022
They also warred with one another, however, with the Ptolemies and the Seleucids emerging as particularly bitter rivals, frequently fighting over the territories that divided their empires.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2020
He warred against it, but his tongue was a transient orator who, in moments of madness or in the dazzling half-nelson of a father’s arm, assumed a life and career of its own.
From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy
The strikes come nearly a week after renewed attacks between the US and Iran, which followed a month of relative calm between the warring sides.
From BBC ● Sep. 5, 2026
Volkswagen’s VOW3 6.47%increase; up pointing triangle warring stakeholders put aside their differences this week to approve a landmark turnaround plan.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026
Lamar is also trying to deal with his identity as a Black man living in a community overrun by warring gangs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2026
Speaking on CNBC, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said a deal between the warring parties could be reached Tuesday or Wednesday.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 4, 2026
Maybe you’ll return to warring with smaller Seelie and Unseelie Courts.
From "The Cruel Prince" by Holly Black
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
