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History vocabulary · Wars, Treaties and Diplomacy

Campaign

Meaning in history, with examples

/kæmˈpeɪn/nounCore term

In history, campaign means: A series of military operations carried out over a period of time in one area or with one main aim, such as capturing a city or defeating an enemy army.

In Turkish: sefer, harekat, askeri kampanya

How it is used

Armies launch, lead and win or lose campaigns: Napoleon's Russian campaign of 1812, the Gallipoli campaign. A battle is a single fight; a campaign may include several battles, sieges and marches. The word is also used for political campaigns.

Example sentences

  1. Napoleon's Russian campaign of 1812 ended in disaster.

  2. Selim I's campaign of 1516–1517 brought Syria and Egypt under Ottoman rule.

Common collocations

  • military campaign
  • launch a campaign
  • the Russian campaign
  • the campaign season
  • the Gallipoli campaign
  • conquestThe act of taking control of a country, city or people by military force, or a territory that has been taken in this way.
  • siegeA military operation in which an army surrounds a town or fortress, cuts off its supplies and attacks it until the defenders surrender or the attackers give up.
  • allianceA formal agreement between states or groups to support each other, especially in war, or the group of states that make such an agreement.
  • world warA war in which most of the world's major powers take part and fighting spreads across several continents; in practice, the wars of 1914–1918 and 1939–1945.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Wars, Treaties and Diplomacy

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