countervalue

countervalue verb: to target an opponent's assets which are of value but not actually a military threat, such as cities and civilian populations.

Verb

countervalue (third-person singular simple present countervalues, present participle countervaluing, simple past and past participle countervalued)

To target an opponent's assets which are of value but not actually a military threat, such as cities and civilian populations.
To make a counter estimate of something's value.

Adjective

countervalue (not comparable)

Targeting an opponent's assets which are of value but not actually a military threat, such as cities and civilian populations.

Antonyms:

counterforce

Antonyms of countervalue

counterforce

Forms of countervalue

third-person singular present	countervalues
present participle	countervaluing
past participle	countervalued
past	countervalued

Origin of countervalue

From counter- + value. The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., records the first use of the word in 1660 and the first use in the modern sense in 1965, where it is described as a "euphemism for attacking cities".

Questions about countervalue

What does countervalue mean?: Countervalue means to target an opponent's assets which are of value but not actually a military threat, such as cities and civilian populations.
What part of speech is countervalue?: Countervalue can be a verb or an adjective.
What is the past tense of countervalue?: The past tense of countervalue is countervalued.

Words near countervalue in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: countervalue (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: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “countervalue.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/countervalue. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.