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History vocabulary · Wars, Treaties and Diplomacy

World war

Meaning in history, with examples

nounCore term

In history, world war means: A 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.

In Turkish: dünya savaşı

How it is used

British English usually says the First World War and the Second World War; American English often says World War I and World War II (WWI, WWII). The years between them are the interwar period. People at the time called the first one the Great War.

Example sentences

  1. The Ottoman Empire entered the First World War in the autumn of 1914.

  2. Both world wars changed the role of women in the workforce.

Common collocations

  • the First World War
  • the Second World War
  • World War II
  • the interwar period
  • the Great War
  • armisticeA formal agreement between warring sides to stop fighting, usually while the terms of a final peace treaty are negotiated.
  • allianceA formal agreement between states or groups to support each other, especially in war, or the group of states that make such an agreement.
  • Cold WarThe long rivalry between the United States and its allies and the Soviet Union and its allies, from the late 1940s until 1991, without a direct full-scale war between them.
  • treatyA formal written agreement between two or more states, for example to end a war, settle borders or create an alliance.

More terms: Wars, Treaties and Diplomacy

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