as in hostilities
a state of armed violent struggle between states, nations, or groups
fortunately, the cool relationship between the two nations never escalated into a hot war
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Recent Examples of hot war
China refuses to rule out the use of force to unify the island with the mainland, and a widening hard power imbalance across the Taiwan Strait is fueling concerns that Beijing could soon compel Taipei with the threat of a hot war.
—
John Feng, MSNBC Newsweek, 26 June 2025
Iran clearly wants to de-escalate its hot war with Israel, which is now in its fifth day and ostensibly over a nuclear program Israel sees as an existential threat.
—Philip Elliott, Time, 17 June 2025
The developments have led to a heightened sense of uncertainty and stress among many Americans, while a hot war in the Middle East between Israel and Iran is sparking fears of a wider global conflict the U.S. could become involved in.
—Dominick Mastrangelo, The Hill, 17 June 2025
With Trump, the thinking goes, Putin can turn a hot war into a cold one and be satisfied with that—after all, Russian military and financial resources are not unlimited.
—Andrei Kolesnikov, Foreign Affairs, 9 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for hot war
John Feng, MSNBC Newsweek, 26 June 2025
Iran clearly wants to de-escalate its hot war with Israel, which is now in its fifth day and ostensibly over a nuclear program Israel sees as an existential threat.
—Philip Elliott, Time, 17 June 2025
The developments have led to a heightened sense of uncertainty and stress among many Americans, while a hot war in the Middle East between Israel and Iran is sparking fears of a wider global conflict the U.S. could become involved in.
—Dominick Mastrangelo, The Hill, 17 June 2025
With Trump, the thinking goes, Putin can turn a hot war into a cold one and be satisfied with that—after all, Russian military and financial resources are not unlimited.
—Andrei Kolesnikov, Foreign Affairs, 9 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for hot war
Recent Examples of Synonyms for hot war
hostilities
Noun
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Meanwhile, the interethnic hostilities that led to the horrors of Sri Lanka’s civil war—which ended, in 2009, with the brutal defeat of the island’s Tamil minority—persist under his watch.—
Kapil Komireddi,
New Yorker,
22 Sep. 2025
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John Cleese and Piers Morgan have renewed their social media hostilities over Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension and Donald Trump‘s state visit to the UK.—
Jake Kanter,
Deadline,
19 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Hot war.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/hot%20war. Accessed 30 Sep. 2025.
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