world war

noun

1. a war that involves most of the principal nations of the world.

Word History and Origins

Origin of world war¹

First recorded in 1910–15

Example Sentences

As a real estate company, we’ve been through a couple of world wars and global financial crises, but we’ve never been in a scenario where every office on the planet is emptied out.

From Time

Since 1896, the Summer Olympics have taken place every four years except for 1916, 1940 and 1944, when they were canceled because of world wars.

From Washington Post

It took the destruction of a world war for the United States to replace Britain’s global infrastructure.

From Washington Post

When the pandemic first began, Gates wrote in his blog, “this is like a world war, except in this case, we’re all on the same side.”

From Time

During the world wars, Rath grows into one of the nation’s biggest meatpackers, thanks to lucrative wartime contracts and savvy ads catering to consumers’ appetite for canned meat.

From ProPublica

As Sutton shows in his book, the important shift took place gradually, from the end of the Civil War until World War II.

From The Daily Beast

My father was in an intelligence unit for the U.S. Navy, as he had been in World War II.

From The Daily Beast

The Chief who went through World War I and then managed to get back into World War II.

From The Daily Beast

World War II is still a long way off, but the seeds of conflict are already being sown on the continent.

From The Daily Beast

In particular, it applies to immigrants who lost their U.S. citizenship after their involvement in World War II was discovered.

From The Daily Beast

In recent days it has been again devastated by the great world war, as its gaunt ruins mutely tell.

From Project Gutenberg

(i) There was a substantial increase in juvenile delinquency during the Second World War.

From Project Gutenberg

Moreover, they would never forget the friendly attitude America had shown them in this terrible world war.

From Project Gutenberg

But Germany did not see how to make this promise and still meet her two formidable enemies, and thus a world-war began.

From Project Gutenberg

It was our weighing time in the balance of the world war, and we proved ourselves not wanting.

From Project Gutenberg