guerrilla

1 of 2

noun

guer·​ril·​la gə-ˈri-lə 

ge-, 

g(y)i-

variants or guerilla

: a person who engages in irregular warfare especially as a member of an independent unit carrying out harassment and sabotage (see sabotage sense 2)

Guerrillas controlled half the country.

guerrilla

2 of 2

adjective

: of, relating to, or suggestive of guerrillas especially in being aggressive, radical, or unconventional

guerrilla warfare

Examples of guerrilla in a Sentence

Noun

The guerrillas controlled half the country.

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

He had been contacted with a $100,000 extortion threat, ostensibly by a now-defunct group of communist guerrilla fighters, to pay up or his family would be harmed, according to court records. —Nate Gartrell, Mercury News, 26 Nov. 2025

The task of halting the slaughter was left largely to the Rwandan Patriotic Front, a Tutsi guerrilla army led by an enigmatic thirty-six-year-old named Paul Kagame. —Jon Lee Anderson, New Yorker, 24 Nov. 2025

Adjective

She became known as a muse of desbunde, an anti-military but also anti-guerrilla nonconformist zeitgeist. —Phil Davison, Washington Post, 11 Nov. 2022

The attacks have prompted Moscow to send anti-guerrilla units to Kherson, Mr. Saldo said. —Yuras Karmanau and Hanna Arhirova, The Christian Science Monitor, 9 Aug. 2022

Word History

Etymology

Noun and Adjective

Spanish guerrilla, from diminutive of guerra war, of Germanic origin; akin to Old High German werra strife — more at war

First Known Use

Noun

1809, in the meaning defined above

Adjective

1811, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing guerrilla

• anti-guerrilla
• guerrilla theater

Rhymes for guerrilla

• axilla
• flotilla
• gorilla
• guerilla
• manilla
• mantilla
• maxilla
• mesilla
• papilla
• priscilla
• scintilla
• sensilla

Kids Definition

guerrilla

noun

guer·​ril·​la

variants or guerilla

gə-ˈril-ə

: a member of a band of persons engaged in warfare not as part of a regular army but as an independent unit making surprise raids behind enemy lines

guerrilla adjective

Etymology

Noun

from Spanish guerrilla, literally, "small war," from guerra "war"