Warfare

//ˈwɔɹfɛɹ// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The waging of war or armed conflict against an enemy. uncountable, usually

    "The Philistines gathered their armies together for warfare, to fight with Israel."

  2. 2
    the waging of armed conflict against an enemy wordnet
  3. 3
    Military operations of some particular kind e.g. guerrilla warfare. uncountable, usually
  4. 4
    an active struggle between competing entities wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To lead a military life; to carry on continual wars.

Synonyms

All synonyms
waraltercationargumentattackbattlebelligerence

Example

More examples

"The art of modern warfare does not necessarily require soldiers to be armed to the teeth to be effective as combatants."

Etymology

From war + fare; perhaps a shortening of Middle English werre-faringe, werfarynge (“waging war, warfare”, literally “going to war”).

Related phrases

asymmetric warfareasymmetrical warfareattrition warfarebiological warfarechemical warfareclass warfarecognitive warfareconventional warfaree-warfareelectronic warfaregerm warfareguerrilla warfare

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