Word.ws English Dictionary

edit war

Syllables: ed·it warUK/ˌɛd.ɪt ˈwɔː/US/ˌɛd.ɪt ˈwoɹ/

edit war noun: a dispute over the content of a page on a wiki or other editable work where opposing editors continually change the page without discussion.

Noun

edit war (plural edit wars)

  1. (wiki jargon) A dispute over the content of a page on a wiki or other editable work where opposing editors continually change the page without discussion.
    • As with dinner-table discussions, it is best to avoid editing articles about politics or religion unless one wishes to become entrenched in a perpetual edit war.
    • An unproductive edit war results as editors change the page back and forth between two incompatible versions, without troubling to engage in discussions.2008, Phoebe Ayers, Charles Matthews, Ben Yates, How Wikipedia Works: And How You Can Be a Part of It, No Starch Press, →ISBN, page 388

Verb

edit war (third-person singular simple present edit wars, present participle edit warring, simple past and past participle edit warred)

  1. (intransitive, wiki jargon) To engage in an edit war.
    • When a dispute arises, it is common to see a page protected to avoid edit warring.

edit war meaning in Hindi, Arabic and Indonesian

edit war in Hindi

a dispute over the content of a page on a wiki or other editable work
संपादन युद्ध sampādan yuddh

edit war in Arabic

a dispute over the content of a page on a wiki or other editable work
حَرْب تَحْرِير ḥarb taḥrīr

edit war in Indonesian

a dispute over the content of a page on a wiki or other editable work
perang suntingan

Forms of edit war

Noun
pluraledit wars
Verb
third-person singular presentedit wars
present participleedit warring
past participleedit warred
pastedit warred
alternative formedit-war

Origin of edit war

From edit + war.

Questions about edit war

What does edit war mean?
Edit war means a dispute over the content of a page on a wiki or other editable work where opposing editors continually change the page without discussion.
What is edit war in Hindi?
Edit war in Hindi is संपादन युद्ध (sampādan yuddh). See Edit war meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is edit war?
Edit war can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce edit war?
Edit war is pronounced /ˌɛd.ɪt ˈwɔː/ (UK).
What is the plural of edit war?
The plural of edit war is edit wars.

Words near edit war in the dictionary

  1. edit conflicts
  2. edit distance
  3. edit distances
  4. edit in
  5. edit out
  6. edit war
  7. edit warred
  8. edit warring
  9. edit warrior
  10. edit warriors
  11. edit wars

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: edit war (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-edit war.oga.

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