war

1. (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.Examples: "holy war; just war; civil war"; "Come on, let vs deale wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it come to passe that when there falleth out any warre, they ioyne also vnto our enemies, and fight against vs, and so get them vp out of the land."; "And when yee shall heare of warres, and rumors of warres, be yee not troubled: For such things must needs be, but the end shall not be yet."uncountable

2. (countable) A particular conflict of this kind.Examples: "All human tribes glad token see In the close of the wars of Grant and Lee."; "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."; "a war of succession... a war of attrition... the Cold War... World War III..."countable

3. (countable, sometimes proscribed) Protracted armed conflict against irregular forces, particularly groups considered terrorists.Examples: "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."; "...These wars are not going away. This is at least a generational struggle."; "the Great Emu War... the Global War on Terrorism..."countableproscribedsometimes

4. (countable, by extension) Any protracted conflict, particularlyExamples: "Trump’s lying is no less constant or blatant than in 2016, but by now it feels familiar, already priced in. What more is there to say about the “war on truth” a decade into Trump’s political career?"; "the War on Poverty... the War on Drugs... the War on Christmas..."broadlycountable

5. (countable, by extension) Any protracted conflict, particularlyExamples: "The war against war is going to be no holiday excursion or camping party... Ask all our millions, north and south, whether they would vote now (were such a thing possible) to have our war for the Union expunged from history... and probably hardly a handful of eccentrics would say yes. Those ancestors, those efforts, those memories and legends, ar the most ideal part of what we now own together, a sacred spiritual possession worth more than all the blood poured out. Yet ask those same people whether they would be willing, in cold blood, to start another civil war now to gain another similar possession, and not one man or woman would vote for the proposition."USbroadlycountableuncountable

6. (countable, by extension) Any protracted conflict, particularlyExamples: "price wars... Cola Wars... format wars..."broadlycountableuncountable