hot war

noun

: a conflict involving actual fighting compare cold war

Examples of hot war in a Sentence

fortunately, the cool relationship between the two nations never escalated into a hot war
Recent Examples on the Web Russia’s war economy is looking pretty Soviet Russia’s hot war with Ukraine—which is boosting the former’s economy—is having some chilly callbacks to the Soviet Union’s longstanding detente with the United States, namely that state military spending is crowding out other forms of economic growth. Morgan Haefner, Quartz, 13 Feb. 2024 There were tensions with China and hot wars in the broader Middle East against the Taliban and the Islamic State, known as ISIS, but the situation is far more dire today. Peter D. Feaver, Foreign Affairs, 19 Feb. 2024 California’s central role in producing weaponry and training military personnel continued after the war because the United States soon found itself in a cold war with the Soviet Union, one aspect of which was a hot war in Korea and later another conflict in Southeast Asia. Dan Walters, The Mercury News, 9 Feb. 2024 This will require hard tradeoffs, but a hot war that directly involves U.S. forces will be far more expensive; protecting American national security and lives through effective deterrence is worth the sacrifice of lesser domestic priorities. Daniel Twining, National Review, 23 Jan. 2024 The worry that the Israel-Hamas war would widen now seems less probable, and a more limited war would save the U.S. government from having to make a stark choice between helping Ukraine and intervening in a hot war in the Middle East. Liana Fix, Foreign Affairs, 28 Nov. 2023 The experts assumed that this would soon change, and that they’d be mobilized in a hot war against malevolent fakers. Daniel Immerwahr, The New Yorker, 13 Nov. 2023 Like the first Cold War, a second would have disastrous consequences for the world: arms races, proxy wars, an inability to address pressing global concerns of security and inequality, and a looming risk of deterioration into a hot war. Blaise Malley, The New Republic, 5 Oct. 2023 The concert worked well when members’ core interests aligned, but when the conservative consensus cracked, so did the concert, which erupted in a hot war over Crimea in 1853. Michael Beckley, Foreign Affairs, 22 Aug. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'hot war.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1947, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of hot war was in 1947

Dictionary Entries Near hot war

Cite this Entry

“Hot war.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hot%20war. Accessed 28 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

hot war

noun
: a conflict involving actual fighting
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!