Word.ws English Dictionary

operational encirclement

operational encirclement noun: a situation of (partial) encirclement where the besieged forces are not yet in imminent danger of destruction or capture, but are unable to organize adequate defence for a longer period of time, especially in such a way that there remains a connection to the rear, which the enemy however can cover with precise artillery fire, severely hampering supply.

Noun

operational encirclement (countable and uncountable, plural operational encirclements)

  1. a situation of (partial) encirclement where the besieged forces are not yet in imminent danger of destruction or capture, but are unable to organize adequate defence for a longer period of time, especially in such a way that there remains a connection to the rear, which the enemy however can cover with precise artillery fire, severely hampering supply.

Forms of operational encirclement

pluraloperational encirclements

Origin of operational encirclement

Chiefly a calque of Russian оперативное окружение (operativnoje okruženije). In frequent use since the beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian war, but already before most usage seems to have been in reference to Russia and the Soviet Union.

Questions about operational encirclement

What does operational encirclement mean?
Operational encirclement means a situation of (partial) encirclement where the besieged forces are not yet in imminent danger of destruction or capture, but are unable to organize adequate defence for a longer period of time, especially in such a way that there remains a connection to the rear, which the enemy however can cover with precise artillery fire, severely hampering supply.
What part of speech is operational encirclement?
Operational encirclement is a noun.
What is the plural of operational encirclement?
The plural of operational encirclement is operational encirclements.

Words near operational encirclement in the dictionary

  1. operational
  2. operational analysis
  3. operational calculus
  4. operational definition
  5. operational definitions
  6. operational encirclement
  7. operational encirclements
  8. operational exhaustion
  9. operational fatigue
  10. operational research
  11. operational service period

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: operational encirclement (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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