guerrilla 1 of 2

noun

variants or guerilla
Definition of guerrillanext
as in soldier
a member of a usually small group of soldiers who do not belong to a regular army and who fight in a war as an independent unit The guerrillas controlled half the country.

Related Words

Relevance

Dissimilar Words

guerrilla

2 of 2

adjective

as in warlike

Related Words

Dissimilar Words

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of guerrilla
Noun
Other people allegedly taken into custody were never seen alive again, including palace cafeteria employees and Irma Franco, an M-19 guerrilla captured during the operation. — Antonio María Delgado, Miami Herald, 18 Sep. 2026 Also known by its Spanish acronym AGC, the group evolved from right-wing paramilitary squads that fought Marxist guerrillas in Colombia in the 1990s and 2000s. — Maria Verza, Chicago Tribune, 10 Sep. 2026
Adjective
Experts say ex-guerrilla fighters, who once occupied the most remote parts of Colombia’s jungles, forests, mountains, and savannas, are uniquely prepared to aid scientists with ongoing conservation efforts. — Lindsey McGinnis, The Christian Science Monitor, 7 Aug. 2020 That was the year that social media really started to take off, which gave restaurants and bars this megaphone to kind of guerrilla market on their own. — BostonGlobe.com, 11 Sep. 2019 See All Example Sentences for guerrilla
Recent Examples of Synonyms for guerrilla
  1. soldier
  2. warlike
  3. partisan
  4. military
  5. marine
  6. combative
  7. paramilitary
  8. aggressive
Noun
  • But what chance would American soldiers have against a country whose military doctrine has already imagined active resistance in populated areas, backed by citizens who could potentially provide intelligence, surveillance and other forms of support?
    — Rachel Marsden, Hartford Courant, 2 Oct. 2026
  • Not so for Cal, who meets soldier Olivier during the Napoleonic Wars and creates a paradox to keep him from dying on the battlefield… only for Olivier to disappear from the timeline entirely.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 1 Oct. 2026
Definition of soldier
Adjective
  • Macron says fires are warlike crisis for France Out-of-control wildfires represent France’s greatest crisis since World War II, President Emmanuel Macron said.
    — Mohammed Sergie, semafor.com, 29 July 2026
  • The poem that precedes it, the Iliad, is a cruel and beautiful work, the ultimate story of war; the Odyssey has its warlike passages, but its central energies seem almost commonplace beside the merciless fury of Achilles.
    — David Denby, New Yorker, 21 June 2026
Definition of warlike
Noun
  • Republicans at the hearing sought to portray Smith as a partisan who abused his authority to target Republicans.
    — Jack Harvel, Kansas City Star, 29 Sep. 2026
  • Eventually, Sinclair partisans took matters into their own hands by heckling the fake newsreels and disrupting screenings.
    — Thomas Doherty, HollywoodReporter, 19 Sep. 2026
Definition of partisan
Adjective
  • Trask, who grow up under the demanding eye of father Cyrus (Tracy Letts), a one-legged Civil War hero who guides them with military rigor.
    — Daniel Fienberg, HollywoodReporter, 1 Oct. 2026
  • Western military officers have said key military installations in Kaliningrad would be a likely first target should Russia ever launch an attack on any NATO ally.
    — Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 1 Oct. 2026
Definition of military
Noun
  • Brea Schmidt was promoted to CFO of Crowley, a global logistics, marine, and energy solutions company.
    — Sheryl Estrada, Fortune, 28 Sep. 2026
  • Castillo, a former US marine who ran a security and risk management company in Myanmar’s commercial capital Yangon, was arrested on June 11 at the city’s international airport.
    — Helen Regan, CNN Money, 18 Sep. 2026
Definition of marine
Adjective
  • Challenger Robert Luna ultimately beat the combative sitting sheriff, Alex Villanueva, by more than 20 percentage points.
    — Connor Sheets, Los Angeles Times, 1 Oct. 2026
  • The combative couple at the centre of the series are film star Carla Duval (Sienna Miller) and tech mogul Morgan Henderson (Dominic West).
    — Irenie Forshaw, TheWeek, 30 Sep. 2026
Definition of combative
Noun
  • The volunteers would be an additional layer of security to the powerful Revolutionary Guard paramilitary and its all-volunteer arm, the Basij.
    — Nasser Karimi, Chicago Tribune, 18 Sep. 2026
  • That weekend, fighting broke out nearby between the Sudanese armed forces and a paramilitary called the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
    — Noraldin Jadat, Christian Science Monitor, 27 July 2026
Definition of paramilitary
Adjective
  • These two phases of work are joined by Serra’s implicit disavowal of abstraction as a form of imagemaking in favor of an object’s aggressive purchase on the real.
    — Jeffrey Weiss, Artforum, 1 Oct. 2026
  • Her challenger is Herb Morgan, a Republican from San Diego who promises a more aggressive approach to the job.
    — Dakota Smith, Los Angeles Times, 1 Oct. 2026
Definition of aggressive

Browse Nearby Words

guck
guerrilla
guerrillas
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Guerrilla.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/guerrilla. Accessed 4 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation

More from Merriam-Webster on guerrilla

Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about guerrilla

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!

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of adventitious

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

More Commonly Mispronounced Words

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

7 Great Ways to Say 'Great'

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

The Words of the Week - Oct. 2

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

7 Great Ways to Say 'Great'

The Longest Long Words List
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
name tags
Words Named After People Quiz Find out who’s behind "leotard," "morphine," an...
See All