civil war

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word civil war. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word civil war, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say civil war in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word civil war you have here. The definition of the word civil war will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofcivil war, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
See also: Civil War

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Etymology

Calque of Latin bellum cīvīle, in English from 1651 in reference to the English Civil War, with possible early use in the 15th and 16th centuries as wer cyuile or ciuill warre. Displaced native Old English inġewinn.

Pronunciation

  • Audio (US):(file)

Noun

civil war (plural civil wars)

  1. A war fought between factions of the inhabitants of a single country, or a similar political entity.
    • 1712 (date written), Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. , London: J Tonson, , published 1713, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 1:
      Our Father’s Death
      Would fill up all the Guilt of Civil War,
      And cloſe the Scene of Blood.
    • 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Turians: The Unification War Codex entry:
      At about the time the salarians and asari were forming the Council, the turians were embroiled in a bitter civil war. The Unification War, as it was later named, began with hostilities between the colonies furthest from the turian homeworld, Palaven.
    • 2015, Shane R. Reeves, David Wallace, “The Combatant Status of the “Little Green Men” and Other Participants in the Ukraine Conflict”, in International Law Studies, US Naval War College, volume 91, number 361, Stockton Center for the Study of International Law, page 393:
      The “little green men”—faces covered, wearing unmarked olive uniforms, speaking Russian and using Russian weapons—have played a significant role in both the occupation of Crimea and the civil war in eastern Ukraine.196
    • 2022 September 6, Arwa Mahdawi, “No doomsday bunker, not a single gun – if the US really is heading for civil war, I’m stuffed”, in The Guardian:
      Civil war is now casually discussed on cable TV shows in between ads for haemorrhoid creams and car insurance.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations