war

English Online Dictionary. What means war‎? What does war mean?

Translingual

Symbol

war

1. (international standards) ISO 639-2 & ISO 639-3 language code for Waray.

English

Alternative forms

• warre (obsolete)
• warr (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English werre, from Late Old English werre, wyrre (“armed conflict”), from Old Northern French werre (compare modern French guerre), from Medieval Latin werra, from Frankish *werru (“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 (“confusion”), 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.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /wɔː/

• (General American) IPA^(key): /wɔɹ/

• Homophones: wore, wor (some dialects)
• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)
• (obsolete or Philippines) IPA^(key): /wɑɹ/

Noun

war (countable and uncountable, plural wars)

2. (uncountable) 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.
   • 1854, Prince George, letter to his wife from Crimea:

     War is indeed a fearful thing and the more I see it the more dreadful it appears.

   • 1864 Sept. 12, William Tecumseh Sherman, letter to the mayor of Atlanta & al.:

     You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it; and those who brought war into our Country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out... You might as well appeal against the thunder-storm as against these terrible hardships of war.

   • 1879 June 19, William Tecumseh Sherman, speech to the Michigan Military Academy:

     I've been where you are now and I know just how you feel. It's entirely natural that there should beat in the breast of every one of you a hope and desire that some day you can use the skill you have acquired here. Suppress it! You don't know the horrible aspects of war. I've been through two wars and I know. I've seen cities and homes in ashes. I've seen thousands of men lying on the ground, their dead faces looking up at the skies. I tell you, war is hell!

   • 1944 June 27, Herbert Hoover, speech to the Republican National Convention:

     Older men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and die.

   • 2013 July 20, "Old Soldiers?", The Economist, Vol. 408, No. 8845:

     Edward Wilson, the inventor of the field of sociobiology, once wrote that "war is embedded in our very nature". This is a belief commonly held not just by sociobiologists but also by anthropologists and other students of human behaviour. They base it not only on the propensity of modern man to go to war with his neighbours (and, indeed, with people halfway around the world, given the chance) but also on observations of the way those who still live a pre-agricultural "hunter-gatherer" life behave... Whether modern, industrial man is less or more warlike than his hunter-gatherer ancestors is impossible to determine... One thing that is true, though, is that murder rates have fallen over the centuries... Modern society may not have done anything about war. But peace is a lot more peaceful.

3. (countable) A particular conflict of this kind.
   • 1999 Nov. 8, Bill Clinton, speech at Georgetown University:

     A second challenge will be to implement, with our allies, a plan of stability in the Balkans, so that the region's bitter ethnic problems can no longer be exploited by dictators and Americans do not have to cross the Atlantic again to fight in another war.

4. (countable, sometimes proscribed) Protracted armed conflict against irregular forces, particularly groups considered terrorists.
   • 2001 Sept. 20, George W. Bush, speech before Congress, White House Archives:

     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.

   • 2021 Sept. 8, Seth G. Jones, quoted in Chris Moody, "Twenty Years after 9/11, Did US Win Its ‘War on Terror’?" Al-Jazeera:

     "...These wars are not going away. This is at least a generational struggle."

5. (countable, by extension) Any protracted conflict, particularly
   1. (chiefly US) Campaigns against various social problems.

   2. (business) A protracted instance of fierce competition in trade.

   3. (crime) A prolonged conflict between two groups of organized criminals, usually over organizational or territorial control.

   4. (Internet) An argument between two or more people with opposing opinions on a topic or issue.

6. (obsolete, uncountable) An assembly of weapons; instruments of war.
7. (obsolete) Armed forces.
9. (uncountable, card games) 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.

Antonyms

• peace

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• battle

Verb

war (third-person singular simple present wars, present participle warring, simple past and past participle warred)

1. (intransitive) To engage in conflict (may be followed by "with" to specify the foe).
   • 1611, King James Bible, Book of Numbers, 31:7:

     And they warred against the Midianites, as the Lord commanded Moses, and they slew all the males
2. (transitive) To carry on, as a contest; to wage.

Synonyms

• go to war, wage war, fight, warray

Translations

Anagrams

• ARW, RWA, R&AW, raw, RAW, Raw, WRA, Rwa

Ambonese Malay

Etymology

Unknown. Perhaps from Dutch vermogen or Portuguese saber.

Verb

war

1. to be able to, can

References

• D. Takaria, C. Pieter (1998) Kamus Bahasa Melayu Ambon-Indonesia‎^[1], Pusat Pembinaan dan Pengembangan Bahasa

Breton

Etymology

From Old Breton guar, from Proto-Celtic *uɸer. Cognate to Welsh ar (“on”), Irish ar (“on, upon”), and Scottish Gaelic air (“on, upon”).

Preposition

war

1. on, over

   War ar sizhun. ― During the week.

   War an doal emañ ar bara. ― The bread is on the table. (right now)

   War an doal e vez ar bara. ― The bread is on the table. (usually)

Inflection

Derived terms

• diwar
• diwar-benn

Chuukese

Verb

war

1. to arrive

Cornish

Preposition

war

1. on, upon

Inflection

Dusner

Noun

war

1. (fresh) water

References

• D. C. Kamholz, Austronesians in Papua (2014, Berkeley)

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch werre, warre (“confusion, disarray, conflict”), from Old Dutch *werra, from Proto-West Germanic *werru (“confusion; quarrel”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʋɑr/
• Hyphenation: war
• Rhymes: -ɑr
• Homophone: War

Noun

war f (plural warren, diminutive warretje n)

1. confusion, disarray
2. tangle, mess
3. an elevated area on the floor of a body of water, a kind of contraption for luring and catching fish, where nets and fykes could be installed

Quotations

Derived terms

Related terms

• wirwar

Dutch Low Saxon

Alternative forms

• (Low Prussian) wahr

Etymology

From Low German wahr, from Middle Low German wâr, from Old Saxon wār. Cognate to German wahr.

Adjective

war

1. (in some dialects) true

Elfdalian

Etymology

From Old Norse hvar, from Proto-Germanic *hwar. Cognate with Swedish var.

Adverb

war

1. where, in what place

German

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vaːɐ̯/
• Homophone: wahr

Verb

war

1. first-person singular preterite of sein
2. third-person singular preterite of sein

Luxembourgish

Alternative forms

• wor

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vaːr/, [vaː], [vaːʀ]

Verb

war

1. first-person singular preterite indicative of sinn
2. third-person singular preterite indicative of sinn

Middle English

Adjective

war

1. Alternative form of werre (“worse”)

Adverb

war

1. Alternative form of werre (“worse”)

Noun

war

1. Alternative form of werre (“worse”)

Mokilese

Noun

war

1. canoe
2. (by extension) vehicle

Inflection

Related terms

• waranki (“to own (a vehicle)”)

Mpur

Noun

war

1. water

References

• A Sketch of Mpur, in Languages of the Eastern Bird's Head (2002)

Northern Kurdish

Etymology 1

Noun

war m

1. place, realm
2. camp, camping ground

Etymology 2

Noun

war m

1. respect, regard

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *wair, related to *wīraz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wɑːr/

Noun

wār n

1. seaweed
2. sand

Descendants

• Middle English: wor
  • English: ware

References

• Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller (1898) “wár”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary‎^[3], 2nd edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Old Gutnish

Etymology

From Proto-Norse ᚹᚨᛊ (was), from Proto-Germanic *was, first/third-person singular indicative past of *wesaną.

Verb

war

1. first/third-person singular indicative past of wara

Old High German

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *wār, from Proto-Germanic *wēraz, whence also Old English wǣr, Old Norse værr.

Adjective

wār

1. true

Derived terms

• wārsago
• wārseggo

Descendants

• Middle High German: wār
  • Cimbrian: baar
  • German: wahr
  • Hunsrik: woher
  • Luxembourgish: wouer
  • Yiddish: וואָר (vor)

Old Polish

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *vȃrъ (“boiling; boiling liquid”). By surface analysis, deverbal from wrzeć／warzyć. First attested in 1499.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (10^th–15^th CE) /vaːr/
• IPA^(key): (15^th CE) /vɒr/

Noun

war m animacy unattested

1. boiling water
2. batch of a beer

Related terms

Descendants

• Polish: war
• Silesian: wŏr

References

• B. Sieradzka-Baziur, Ewa Deptuchowa, Joanna Duska, Mariusz Frodyma, Beata Hejmo, Dorota Janeczko, Katarzyna Jasińska, Krystyna Kajtoch, Joanna Kozioł, Marian Kucała, Dorota Mika, Gabriela Niemiec, Urszula Poprawska, Elżbieta Supranowicz, Ludwika Szelachowska-Winiarzowa, Zofia Wanicowa, Piotr Szpor, Bartłomiej Borek, editors (2011–2015), “war”, in Słownik pojęciowy języka staropolskiego [Conceptual Dictionary of Old Polish] (in Polish), Kraków: IJP PAN, →ISBN

Old Saxon

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *wār, from Proto-Germanic *wēraz, from Proto-Indo-European *weh₁ros.

Adjective

wār

1. true

Declension

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈvar/
• Rhymes: -ar
• Syllabification: war

Etymology 1

Inherited from Old Polish war. By surface analysis, deverbal from warzyć.

Noun

war m inan

1. (obsolete) boiling water or other liquid

   Synonyms: wrzątek, ukrop, kipiatok

Declension

Related terms

Etymology 2

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *vȃrъ (“heat”).

Noun

war m inan

1. (obsolete, dialectal) extreme heat

   Synonyms: upał, gorąc, skwar, spiekota

Declension

Etymology 3

Borrowed from English var.

Noun

war m inan

1. (physics) var, volt-ampere reactive (unit of electrical power)

Declension

Further reading

• war in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• war in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Scots

Etymology 1

From Middle English were, weren, from Old English wǣre, wǣron, wǣren, from Proto-Germanic *wēz-, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wes-.

Verb

war

1. first/second/third-person plural simple past indicative of be; were

Etymology 2

From Middle English werre, from Old Northern French, ultimately a Frankish loan.

Noun

war (plural wars)

1. war

Alternative forms

• wer, weir

References

• “war”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC.

Somali

Noun

war ?

1. news

   Wax war miyaa hey-sa? ― Do you have some news?

Tocharian B

Etymology

From Proto-Tocharian *wär (whence Tocharian A wär), from Proto-Indo-European *wódr̥ (“water”) through a regular (endocentric) thematicization via *udrom.

Noun

war ?

1. water

See also

• āp (“body of water, river, flood”)

Yola

Alternative forms

• ware

Etymology

From Middle English ware, from Old English wǣre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wɔː/
• Homophones: w'aare, wore

Verb

war

1. were

Related terms

• waas
• wasth

References

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 32