Word.ws English Dictionary

shock and awe

UK/ˈʃɒk(ə)nd ˈɔː/US/ˈʃɑk(ə)nd ˈɔ/

shock and awe noun: a doctrine based on the use of spectacular displays of force.

shock and awe: a doctrine based on the use of spectacular displays of force
Image: Technical Sergeant John L. Houghton, Jr., United States Air, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

shock and awe (uncountable)

  1. (also, figuratively) A doctrine based on the use of spectacular displays of force.
    • To affect the will of the adversary, Rapid Dominance will apply a variety of approaches and techniques to achieve the necessary level of Shock and Awe at the appropriate strategic and military leverage points. […] Flowing from the primary concentration on affecting the adversary's will to resist...1996, Harlan K[enneth] Ullman, James P. Wade [et al.], “Prologue”, in Shock and Awe: Achieving Rapid Dominance, [Washington, D.C.]: Center for Advanced Concepts and Technology, →ISBN, archived from...
    • WWE and WCW gussied up the ritual with a lot of shock-and-awe pyrotechnics and the most innovative use of video graphics this side of MTV. Not so Extreme Championship Wrestling.2006, Thomas Hackett, Slaphappy: Pride, Prejudice, and Professional Wrestling, New York, NY: HarperCollins, →ISBN, page 22
    Synonyms:
    rapid dominance

Verb

shock and awe (third-person singular simple present shocks and awes, present participle shocking and awing or shocking and aweing, simple past and past participle shocked and awed)

  1. (also, figuratively) To use the "shock and awe" doctrine in an actual or potential conflict, or to otherwise use a spectacular display of force or authority.
    • He was a young soldier still in the great battle of life, not used to see his fellow-combatants drop down by his side; and he felt shocked and awed.[1877, Julia Kavanagh, chapter XXVII, in Two Lilies. A Novel, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, 549 & 551 Broadway, →OCLC, page 261
    • That's why good strategists know when to stop shocking and awing: when to begin consolidating the benefits these strategies have provided. The classic example is Otto von Bismarck, who set new standards for shock and awe by provoking three wars—against Denmark in 1864, Austria in 1866, and France...2004, John Lewis Gaddis, “The Twenty-first Century”, in Surprise, Security, and the American Experience (Joanna Jackson Goldman Memorial Lecture on American Civilization and Government), Cambridge...

shock and awe meaning in Arabic

shock and awe in Arabic

doctrine based on the use of spectacular displays of force
الصدمة والترويع

Examples of shock and awe in a sentence

  • One expression above all others has become associated with the invasion of Iraq – "shock and awe".2013 March 19, Richard Sanders, “The myth of ‘shock and awe’: Why the Iraqi invasion was a disaster”, in The Daily Telegraph, London...
  • In defense of moderation, he proposed simply stomping out religious radicals. (In American terms: shock and awe, rather than hearts and minds.)2018 November 3, Hassan Hassan, “The Arab Winter Is Coming”, in The Atlantic:
  • [The surveillance capitalists] specialize in displays of instrumentarianism’s unique brand of shock and awe, leaving onlookers dazed, uncertain, and helpless.2018, Shoshana Zuboff, chapter 14, in The Age of Surveillance Capitalism:
  • And the events in nature that shock and awe the senses are used as excuses for doing away with those minimal environmental protections that still constrain the fossil fuel industry.2006, Bonnie Mann, “Conclusion”, in Women’s Liberation and the Sublime: Feminism, Postmodernism, Environment, New York, N.Y.: Oxford...

Synonyms of shock and awe

  • rapid dominance

Forms of shock and awe

third-person singular presentshocks and awes
present participleshocking and awing
present participleshocking and aweing
past participleshocked and awed
pastshocked and awed

Origin of shock and awe

Coined by American defence strategists Harlan Kenneth Ullman (born 1941) and James P. Wade, Jr., in Shock and Awe (1996): see the quotation. The term gained greater public attention during the 2003 invasion of Iraq by US troops.

Words that rhyme with shock and awe

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about shock and awe

What does shock and awe mean?
Shock and awe means a doctrine based on the use of spectacular displays of force.
What is shock and awe in Arabic?
Shock and awe in Arabic is الصدمة والترويع. See Shock and awe meaning in Arabic.
How do you use shock and awe in a sentence?
One expression above all others has become associated with the invasion of Iraq – "shock and awe".
What part of speech is shock and awe?
Shock and awe can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce shock and awe?
Shock and awe is pronounced /ˈʃɒk(ə)nd ˈɔː/ (UK).

Words near shock and awe in the dictionary

  1. shochus
  2. shock
  3. shock absorber
  4. shock absorbers
  5. shock absorption
  6. shock and awe
  7. shock collar
  8. shock collars
  9. shock diamond
  10. shock diamonds
  11. shock front

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shock and awe (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-au-shock and awe.ogg.

Cite this entry: “shock and awe.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shock_and_awe. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.