Metaconflict

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Conflict over whether or how to engage in a conflict. countable, uncountable

    "You face this choice repeatedly throughout a conflict; it is so fundamental that parties often get stuck in cycles of metaconflict — conflicting over whether they will engage one another in the conflict."

Example

More examples

"You face this choice repeatedly throughout a conflict; it is so fundamental that parties often get stuck in cycles of metaconflict — conflicting over whether they will engage one another in the conflict."

Etymology

From meta- + conflict.

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Editorial Guides For "metaconflict"

De-escalation Language for Difficult Conversations

Use wording that lowers tension while preserving boundaries and forward progress.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.