warfare

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈwɔɹfɛɹ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈwɔːfɛə/

• Audio (GA)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: war‧fare

Noun

warfare (usually uncountable, plural warfares)

1. The waging of war or armed conflict against an enemy.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Samuel 28:1:

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

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

Derived terms

• antiwarfare
• asymmetrical warfare
• asymmetric warfare
• biological warfare
• chemical warfare
• class warfare
• conventional warfare
• cyberwarfare
• electronic warfare
• e-warfare
• germ warfare
• guerrilla warfare
• hybrid warfare
• information warfare
• irregular warfare
• lawfare
• memetic warfare
• nuclear warfare
• open warfare
• psychological warfare
• siege warfare
• spiritual warfare
• trench warfare
• urban warfare
• warfarer

 

Related terms

• war

Translations

the waging of war or armed conflict against an enemy

• Albanian: please add this translation if you can
• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Belarusian: вядзенне вайны n (vjadzjennje vajny)
• Bulgarian: воюване (bg) n (vojuvane)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Danish: krigsførelse c
• Dutch: krijgsvoering f, oorlogvoering (nl) f, strijd (nl) m
• Esperanto: militado
• Estonian: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: sodankäynti (fi), sota (fi), sotiminen (fi)
• French: guerre (fr) f
• Georgian: ომიანობა (omianoba), ომის წარმოება (omis c̣armoeba)
• German: Kriegsführung (de) f
• Greek: πόλεμος (el) m (pólemos), σύρραξη (el) f (sýrraxi), εχθροπραξίες (el) f pl (echthropraxíes), πάλη (el) f (páli) (metaphorical)
• Hungarian: hadviselés (hu)
• Italian: battaglia (it) f, combattimento (it) m
• Khmer: សង្គ្រាម (km) (sɑngkriəm)
• Latvian: please add this translation if you can
• Lithuanian: please add this translation if you can
• Macedonian: воју́вање n (vojúvanje)
• Maori: matawhāura, rīriri
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: krigføring m or f

• Old English: campdōm m, gūþcræft f
• Polish: prowadzenie wojny n, wojna (pl) f
• Romanian: război (ro) n, luptă (ro) f
• Russian: веде́ние войны́ (ru) n (vedénije vojný)
• Slovak: please add this translation if you can
• Thai: การสู้รบ
• Turkish: please add this translation if you can
• Ukrainian: please add this translation if you can
• Vietnamese: chiến tranh (vi)

military operations of some particular kind

• Bulgarian: военна операция f (voenna operacija)
• Danish: -krig c, krigsførelse (examples: luftkrig/søkrig)
• Dutch: krijgsvoering f, oorlogvoering (nl) f, strijd (nl) m
• Finnish: sodankäynti (fi), sota (fi)
• French: guerre (fr) f, combat (fr) m
• German: Kriegsführung (de) f
• Hebrew: לָחְמָה (he) f (lokhma), לָחֲמָה (he) f (lokhama)
• Macedonian: во́ени де́јствија n pl (vóeni déjstvija)
• Maori: matawhāura
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: krigføring m or f

• Russian: приёмы ведения войны (prijómy vedénija vojný) m pl

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Arabic: صِرَاع m (ṣirāʕ), حَرْب (ar) m (ḥarb), نِضَال m (niḍāl), قِتَال m (qitāl)
• Basque: gerra (eu), guda (eu)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 戰爭／战争 (zh) (zhànzhēng)

• Estonian: sõda (et)
• Greek: εχθροπραξία (el) f (echthropraxía)
• Icelandic: hernaður m
• Japanese: 戦い (ja) (tatakai), 戦争 (ja) (sensō)
• Korean: 전쟁 (ko) (jeonjaeng)
• Latin: mīlitia f
• Norwegian: krigføring c
• Polish: wojna (pl) f
• Portuguese: guerra (pt) f
• Spanish: guerra (es) f
• Swedish: krigföring (sv) c
• Turkish: kital

Verb

warfare (third-person singular simple present warfares, present participle warfaring, simple past and past participle warfared)

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

Further reading

• “warfare”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “warfare”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• warfare in Britannica Dictionary
• warfare in Ozdic collocation dictionary
• warfare in WordReference English Collocations