Word.ws English Dictionary

preemptive self-defence

preemptive self-defence noun: the concept of an armed attack on another state, when not at war, on the belief that the other state represents a real attack threat. It differs from a preemptive strike which applies to states which are already at war.

Noun

preemptive self-defence (uncountable)

  1. The concept of an armed attack on another state, when not at war, on the belief that the other state represents a real attack threat. It differs from a preemptive strike which applies to states which are already at war.

Questions about preemptive self-defence

What does preemptive self-defence mean?
Preemptive self-defence means the concept of an armed attack on another state, when not at war, on the belief that the other state represents a real attack threat. It differs from a preemptive strike which applies to states which are already at war.
What part of speech is preemptive self-defence?
Preemptive self-defence is a noun.

Words near preemptive self-defence in the dictionary

  1. preemptioners
  2. preemptions
  3. preemptive
  4. preemptive right
  5. preemptive rights
  6. preemptive self-defence
  7. preemptive strike
  8. preemptive strikes
  9. preemptively
  10. preemptor
  11. preemptorally

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: preemptive self-defence (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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