arms race

noun

: a race between hostile nations to accumulate or develop weapons

broadly : an ever escalating race or competition

Examples of arms race in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Like its hyperscaler rivals, Meta has already invested billions and billions of dollars to keep pace in the AI arms race. — Paulina Likos, CNBC, 10 July 2026

Hotels competing to out-spectacle each other Host city hotels are engaged in an escalating luxury arms race. — Jordi Lippe-McGraw, Condé Nast Traveler, 9 July 2026

Countries across three continents are spending $2 trillion on a new, technological arms race, according to Bloomberg, including anti-satellite weapons to counter threats from space. — Tom Chivers, semafor.com, 7 July 2026

What follows is an arms race in which both sides run on AI, and the only thing that operates at the speed and scale of an autonomous attacker is an autonomous defender. — Jon Markman, Forbes.com, 7 July 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1921, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for arms race

• abase
• airspace
• apace
• backspace
• biface
• birthplace
• blackface
• boldface
• bookcase
• braincase
• briefcase
• carcase