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

Between the two worlds of the arms race Chen’s path to turning down Musk didn’t begin in Beijing, but in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and with a childhood obsession that drove his parents crazy. —Eva Roytburg, Fortune, 28 Nov. 2025

Currently, nuclear arms control is facing challenges, as global nuclear strategic rivalries are becoming more intense and complex, and the risk of a nuclear arms race is growing. —Ryan Chan, MSNBC Newsweek, 27 Nov. 2025

China is the big boogeyman in a lot of conversations, but with AI in particular there's talk about this arms race around AI. —Katie Drummond, Wired News, 18 Nov. 2025

But Amodei is also engaged in a multi-trillion dollar arms race, a cutthroat competition to develop a form of intelligence the world has never seen. —Nichole Marks, CBS News, 17 Nov. 2025

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