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war

noun
/wɔː/UK/wɔɹ/US/wɔɾ/

Etymology

From Middle English werre, from Late Old English werre /wyrre (“armed conflict”), from Anglo-Norman and Old Northern French guerre /werre (compare modern French guerre), from Medieval Latin werra, from Frankish *werʀu (“confusion; quarrel”), from Proto-Indo-European *wers- (“to mix up, confuse, beat, thresh”). Gradually displaced native Old English beadu, hild, ġewinn, orleġe, wīġ, and many others as the general term for "war" during the Middle English period. Related to Old High German werra (“confusion, strife, quarrel”) and German verwirren (“to confuse”), but not to Wehr (“defense”). Also related to Old Saxon werran (“to confuse, perplex”), Dutch war (“confusion, disarray”), West Frisian war (“struggle, resistance, defense, effort, exertion, activity”), Old English wyrsa, wiersa (“worse”), Old Norse verri (“worse, orig. confounded, mixed up”), Italian guerra (“war”). There may be a connection with worse and wurst.

  1. derived from *wers-✻ — “to mix up, confuse, beat, thresh”
  2. derived from *werʀu✻ — “confusion; quarrel”
  3. derived from werra
  4. derived from guerre//werre
  5. inherited from werre//wyrre
  6. inherited from werre

Definitions

  1. Organized, large-scale, armed conflict between countries or between national, ethnic, or…

    Organized, large-scale, armed conflict between countries or between national, ethnic, or other sizeable groups, usually but not always involving active engagement of military forces.

    • holy war; just war; civil war
    • Come on, let vs deale wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it come to passe that when there falleth out any warre, they ioyne also vnto our enemies, and fight against vs, and so get them vp out of the land.
    • And when yee shall heare of warres, and rumors of warres, be yee not troubled: For such things must needs be, but the end shall not be yet.

  2. A particular conflict of this kind.

    • All human tribes glad token see In the close of the wars of Grant and Lee.
    • a war of succession... a war of attrition... the Cold War... World War III...

  3. Protracted armed conflict against irregular forces, particularly groups considered…

    Protracted armed conflict against irregular forces, particularly groups considered terrorists.

    • Our war on terror begins with al Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated.
    • ...These wars are not going away. This is at least a generational struggle.
    • the Great Emu War... the Global War on Terrorism...
  4. ›+ 15 more definitions

    1. Any protracted conflict, particularly

      • the War on Poverty... the War on Drugs... the War on Christmas...

    2. An assembly of weapons

      An assembly of weapons; instruments of war.

      • The God of Love himſelf inhabits there, With all his rage, and dread, and grief, and care, His complement of ſtores, and total war...

    3. Armed forces.

      • On thir imbattelld ranks the Waves return, And overwhelm thir Warr

    4. Any of a family of card games where all cards are dealt at the beginning of play and…

      Any of a family of card games where all cards are dealt at the beginning of play and players attempt to capture them all, typically involving no skill and only serving to kill time.

      • We played crazy eights, war, fifty-two card pickup. Rudy flipped the whole deck across the table at me and the cards sailed to the floor, kings, queens, deuces.

    5. To engage in conflict (may be followed by "with" to specify the foe).

      • ...to war the Scot, and borders to defend...
      • And they warred against the Midianites, as the Lord commanded Moses, and they slew all the males
      • Once more vnto the Breach, Deare friends, once more... Be Coppy now to men of groſſer blood, And teach them how to Warre.

    6. To carry on, as a contest

      To carry on, as a contest; to wage.

      • […], that thou by them mighteſt warre a good warfare,[…].
      • By God, that man does war honour.

    7. Preceded by the

      Preceded by the: designating a particularly notable war.

      • Through much of the War, Hitler carried his painter's kit, did water colors of War-ruined buildings.

    8. The personification of war, often depicted in armour and riding a red horse

      The personification of war, often depicted in armour and riding a red horse; the red rider.

    9. A city in West Virginia, United States.

    10. Initialism of White Aryan Resistance.

    11. Initialism of Web Application aRchive (a Java archive file).

    12. Initialism of Winchester Automatic Rifle.

    13. Initialism of Women Against Registry.

    14. Initialism of write after read, a kind of data hazard.

    15. Acronym of wins above replacement.

The neighborhood

Derived

14-18 war, abstinence of war, act of war, afterwar, after-war, airwar, air war, all is fair in love and war, all's fair in love and war, anti-war, articles of war, art of war, at war, bewarred, bus war, captain of sea and war, catalytic war, class war, color war, contraband of war, council of war, counterwar, culture war, currency war, cyberwar, declaration of war, declare war, dirty war, dogs of war, Eastern War Time Zone, Eastern War Time, ecowar, European War, fog of war, forever war, future war, God of War, go to war, gunstock war club, hard war · +245 more

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at war. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01war02armed03furnished04needed05required06mandatory07commanded08command09mastery

A definitional loop anchored at war. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

9 hops · closes at war

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA