friendly fire

noun

: the firing of weapons from one's own forces or those of an ally especially when resulting in the accidental death or injury of one's own personnel

Near the river bordering our camp I find the tents of the four soldiers who were supposedly hit by friendly fire.

—Janine Di Giovanni

After all, accidental attacks, though tragic, are common in war. In 1967 alone, "friendly fire" killed 5,373 Americans fighting in Vietnam.

—Michael Oren

Examples of friendly fire in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The cost of losing three pilots and three high-performance fighter jets to friendly fire in Kuwait was not reported in the news. —Chicago Tribune, 5 Mar. 2026

Also included in the cost would likely be the loss of three F-15 fighter jets due to friendly fire incident in Kuwait. —Anne Flaherty, ABC News, 5 Mar. 2026

There were 177 million incidents of friendly fire over the past year, and absolutely none of that came from my love of the aforementioned 380mm barrage. —Ian Stokes, Space.com, 3 Mar. 2026

However, other unconfirmed reports suggested the incident may have been the result of possible friendly fire. —Sujita Sinha, Interesting Engineering, 2 Mar. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1918, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for friendly fire

• acquire
• attire
• bonfire
• campfire
• ceasefire
• conspire
• desire
• enquire
• entire
• greenbrier
• gunfire
• homebuyer