cold war
UK/ˌkəʊld ˈwɔː//ˌkoʊld ˈwɔɹ/
cold war noun: a period of hostile relations between rivals where direct open warfare between them is largely undesired and avoided; especially, either the Cold War or Cold War II.
Noun
cold war (uncountable)
- A period of hostile relations between rivals where direct open warfare between them is largely undesired and avoided; especially, either the Cold War or Cold War II.
- James Burnham's theory has been much discussed, but few people have yet considered its ideological implications—that is, the kind of world-view, the kind of beliefs, and the social structure that would probably prevail in a state which was at once unconquerable and in a permanent state of “cold...1945, George Orwell, "You and the Atom Bomb", Tribune, 19 October 1945; reprinted in Orwell, Sonia Orwell, and Ian Angus, George Orwell: The Collected Essays, Journalism & Letters, Volume 4: In Front...
- World War III started on VJ Day as a cold war. It began to warm up when the Russians blockaded Berlin and nearly reached the exploding point in Korea.1951, Daniel V. Gallery, Clear the Decks, 19 October 1945, page 100
- Antonyms:
- hot war
Proper noun capitalized: Cold War
the Cold War
- The period of hostility short of open war between the Soviet Bloc and the Western powers, especially the United States, between 1945 and 1991.
- Well Russia at the present time is at a crossroads. It is often said that the Cold War is over and that the West has won it- that's only half true. Because what has happened is that the communists have been defeated, but the ideas of freedom now are on trial. If they don't work, there will be a...1992 March 30, Richard Nixon, 13:46 from the start, in Richard Nixon on ‘Inside Washington’, Richard Nixon Foundation, via Seoul Broadcasting System, archived from the original on 09 Oct 2017
- The situation in Berlin had its uses for Moscow, of course, as for others–the city had become the primary listening post and spy center of the Cold War; some 70 different agencies were operating there by 1961, and it was in Berlin that Soviet espionage scored some of their greatest successes.2005, Tony Judt, “The Politics of Stability”, in Postwar: A history of Europe since 1945, London: Vintage Books, published 2010, →ISBN
cold war meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
cold war in Hindi
- a period of hostile relations
- शीतयुद्ध śītyuddh
cold war in Tamil
- ஆளுமைக்கான வெளியில் தெரியாத உட்சண்டை, உட்பூசல், பனிப்போர், ஊமைப் போர்
cold war in Marathi
- a period of hostile relations
- शीतयुद्ध śītyuddha
cold war in Urdu
- a period of hostile relations
- سَرْد جَن٘گ sard jaṅg
More languagesFewer languages
- cold war in Bengali
- স্নায়ুযুদ্ধ snaẏujuddho
- cold war in Telugu
- ప్రచ్ఛన్నయుద్ధము pracchannayuddhamu
- cold war in Malayalam
- ശീതയുദ്ധം śītayuddhaṁ
- cold war in Kannada
- ಸಂಚು ರೂಪಿಸುವುದು, ಶೀತಸಮರ, ಶೀತಲಯುದ್ಧ, ಪ್ರಚ್ಛನ್ನ ಸಮರ
- cold war in Punjabi
- ਸ਼ੀਤ ਜੰਗ śīt jaṅg
- cold war in Gujarati
- શીતયુદ્ધ śītyuddh
- cold war in Tagalog
- digmaang malamig
- cold war in Arabic
- حَرْب بَارِدَة ḥarb bārida
- cold war in Malay
- perang dingin, pakanga taungaunga
- cold war in Indonesian
- perang dingin
- cold war in Thai
- สงครามเย็น sǒng-kraam-yen
- cold war in Vietnamese
- chiến tranh lạnh
- cold war in Myanmar
- စစ်အေးတိုက်ပွဲ cace:tuikpwai:, စစ်အေး cace:
Examples of cold war in a sentence
- It's just an old war / Not even a cold war1979, “Broken English”, performed by Marianne Faithfull:
- The world economy is on the brink of a second cold war that could “annihilate” progress made since the collapse of the Soviet Union, a senior International Monetary Fund official has warned.2023 December 11, Richard Partington, “World economy on brink of ‘cold war two’, IMF official warns”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
Antonyms of cold war
Origin of cold war
Diachronically, back-formation from Cold War: a common noun back-formed from the proper noun naming the first post–WWII instance of the concept; synchronically, cold + war.
Coined by American journalist Herbert Bayard Swope in 1947, in a speech he wrote for Bernard Baruch (1870–1965), an American financier and adviser to President Woodrow Wilson.
Words that rhyme with cold war
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about cold war
- What does cold war mean?
- Cold war means a period of hostile relations between rivals where direct open warfare between them is largely undesired and avoided; especially, either the Cold War or Cold War II.
- What is cold war in Hindi?
- Cold war in Hindi is शीतयुद्ध (śītyuddh). See Cold war meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use cold war in a sentence?
- It's just an old war / Not even a cold war
- What part of speech is cold war?
- Cold war can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce cold war?
- Cold war is pronounced /ˌkəʊld ˈwɔː/ (UK).
Words near cold war in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: cold war (page history and authors); Cold War (page history and authors); cold war (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ప్రచ్ఛన్నయుద్ధము (Telugu) (page history and authors); cold war (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-cold war.oga.
Cite this entry: “cold war.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cold_war. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.