proxy war

proxy war noun: a war where two powers use third parties as a supplement to, or a substitute for, fighting each other directly.

Noun

proxy war (plural proxy wars)

A war where two powers use third parties as a supplement to, or a substitute for, fighting each other directly.
- With the enhanced insurgent firepower and with Russia steadily raising the number of airstrikes against the government’s opponents, the Syrian conflict is edging closer to an all-out proxy war between the United States and Russia.2015 October 12, Anne Barnard, Karam Shoumali, “U.S. Weaponry Is Turning Syria Into Proxy War With Russia”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 08 Mar 2022

war where two powers use third parties: حَرْب بِالوِكَالَة ḥarb bi-l-wikāla

More languagesFewer languages

proxy war in Indonesian: perang proksi, perang bayangan
proxy war in Persian: جنگ نیابتی jang-e niyâbati, جنگ وکالتی jang-e vekâlati
proxy war in Thai: สงครามตัวแทน sǒng-kraam-dtuua-tɛɛn
proxy war in Vietnamese: chiến tranh ủy nhiệm
Sindhi: پرائي جنگ prāe j̃g

plural	proxy wars
alternative form	war by proxy

What does proxy war mean?: Proxy war means a war where two powers use third parties as a supplement to, or a substitute for, fighting each other directly.
What is proxy war in Hindi?: Proxy war in Hindi is परोक्ष युद्ध (parokṣ yuddh). See Proxy war meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is proxy war?: Proxy war is a noun.
What is the plural of proxy war?: The plural of proxy war is proxy wars.

Adapted from Wiktionary: proxy 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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-proxy war.wav.

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