fog of war

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

English

Fog of war (sense 2) in the video game The Battle for Wesnoth

Etymology

Calque of German Nebel des Krieges, an expression coined by Prussian general Carl von Clausewitz.

Noun

fog of war (plural fogs of war)

  1. The uncertainty in situational awareness experienced by participants in military operations.
    • 2023 June 8, Anne Applebaum, “The True Purpose of Ukraine’s Counteroffensive”, in The Atlantic, retrieved 2023-06-09:
      Future reports from any source should be treated with caution. What we can see is not the “fog of war,” in the old-fashioned sense; instead it is a kind of swirling tornado, a maelstrom of claims and counterclaims, memes and countermemes, real battles taking place away from television screens and fake ones happening on camera.
    • 2023 June 14, Peter Beaumont, “Ukraine’s failed Mala Tokmachka assault lays bare counteroffensive challenges”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
      Only now, amid the fog of war, is it possible to ascertain what happened.
  2. (video games) The shrouded concealment of enemy activity outside of areas observable by a player's forces.
    • 2014, Tony Hey, Gyuri Pápay, The Computing Universe: A Journey through a Revolution, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 185:
      The game starts with an overhead view of a map with the “fog of war” covering all areas not within sight of the player's units.

Translations

Further reading