hot war

noun

open military conflict; an armed conflict between nations:
The increasing tension in the Middle East could lead to a hot war.

Origin of hot war¹

First recorded in 1945–50; by analogy with cold war

How does hot war compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

He endangered an ally in attempting to extort Ukraine in the middle of a hot war against Russia.

She was apprehended before she had an opportunity to grab the microphone and give her prepared speech demanding “the end of all cold and hot wars.”

Two events—one a hot war and another a diplomatic one—thrust the Israeli-Palestinian conflict yet again into the limelight.

The development of nuclear weapons deterred the U.S. and the Soviet Union from the hot war they might otherwise have fought.

The rest of my life was to be devoted to the Royal Navy, if only a hot war should come again; of which we already felt simmerings.

Now the bloom had passed away, and the dew dried up in the hot war-atmosphere.

During the holidays, hot war raged between Tod and his step-mother.

Unknown to Lewis and Clark, though they gradually came to discover it, hot war was waging in the north.

In the Moluccas also they had done much injury to the Spaniards, and a hot war was there expected.

Browse