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warfare

noun · verb

Simple meaning

The waging of armed conflict against an enemy.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

wawrfer

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈwɔɹfɛɹ

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. The waging of armed conflict against an enemy

  2. Military operations of some particular kind e.g. guerrilla warfare.

verb

  1. To lead a military life; to carry on continual wars.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B2 · Upper Intermediate
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: The waging of armed conflict against an enemy

Used this way, warfare is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Negative
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Moderate
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Serious and weighty
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Waging

submarine warfareguerilla warfare

Other combinations

guerrilla warfarechemical warfaretrench warfareclass warfaremodern warfareopen warfare

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • biological warfarenounCompound term

    The use of bacteria or viruses or toxins to destroy men and animals or food.

  • biological warfare defencenounCompound term

    Defense against biological warfare.

  • biological warfare defensenounCompound term

    Defense against biological warfare.

  • chemical warfarenounCompound term

    Warfare using chemical agents to kill or injure or incapacitate the enemy.

  • class warfarenounCompound term

    Conflict between social or economic classes (especially between the capitalist and proletariat classes).

  • eco-warfarenounCompound term

    Violence carried out to further the political or social objectives of the environmentalists.

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.