Nonwar
adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A situation that is not a war (but possibly resembles one).
"Several specific nonwars are in their own way even more extraordinary than the one that has taken place between the United States and the Soviet Union."
- 1 Not of or pertaining to war. not-comparable
"Chinese leader Xi Jinping has signed a directive allowing non-war uses of the military, prompting concerns that Beijing may be gearing up to invade the democratic island of Taiwan under the guise of a "special operation" not classified as war.[…] "[It] provides a legal basis for non-war military operation," it said. Among the six-chapter document's stated aims are "maintaining national sovereignty ... regional stability and regulating the organization and implementation of non-war military operations," it said."
Example
More examples"Chinese leader Xi Jinping has signed a directive allowing non-war uses of the military, prompting concerns that Beijing may be gearing up to invade the democratic island of Taiwan under the guise of a "special operation" not classified as war.[…] "[It] provides a legal basis for non-war military operation," it said. Among the six-chapter document's stated aims are "maintaining national sovereignty ... regional stability and regulating the organization and implementation of non-war military operations," it said."
Etymology
From non- + war.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.