Word.ws English Dictionary

first strike

first strike noun: an attack (typically nuclear) launched without warning in the absence of a prior attack by one's opponent, with the intention of destroying one's opponent's ability to retaliate.

Noun

first strike (plural first strikes)

  1. An attack (typically nuclear) launched without warning in the absence of a prior attack by one's opponent, with the intention of destroying one's opponent's ability to retaliate.
    • Near-synonym: decapitation strike
    • During the Cold War, both sides feared that the other was preparing to launch a first strike.
  2. (criminal law) A first offense by a lawbreaker, as counted by a three-strikes law.
    • His first strike was when he stole a car to go for a joyride.
  3. One of the first few coins struck from a new set of dies.
    • Collectors pay a premium for first strikes in order to get their hands on coins with the crispest possible detailing.

Examples of first strike in a sentence

  • "Where I come from 'proactive defense' is a euphemism for "first strike." "This is not that approach, Putzho.2017 June 23, Howard Tayler, Schlock Mercenary, archived from the original on 20 Jan 2024:
  • With those people's minds blown away in the first strike, the dense web of mutual memory which had held the Task Force together since its formation tore loose.2019 August 26, qntm, “Unthreaded”, in There Is No Antimemetics Division, →ISBN, page 162:

Synonyms of first strike

Forms of first strike

pluralfirst strikes

Questions about first strike

What does first strike mean?
First strike means an attack (typically nuclear) launched without warning in the absence of a prior attack by one's opponent, with the intention of destroying one's opponent's ability to retaliate.
How do you use first strike in a sentence?
"Where I come from 'proactive defense' is a euphemism for "first strike." "This is not that approach, Putzho.
What part of speech is first strike?
First strike is a noun.
What is the plural of first strike?
The plural of first strike is first strikes.

Words near first strike in the dictionary

  1. first slips
  2. First Son
  3. First Sons
  4. First Spouse
  5. First State
  6. first strike
  7. first strikes
  8. first string
  9. first success distribution
  10. first team
  11. first teams

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: first strike (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-first strike.wav.

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