Word.ws English Dictionary

war of words

war of words noun: a heated exchange of threatening or inflammatory statements.

Noun

war of words (plural wars of words)

  1. (idiomatic) A heated exchange of threatening or inflammatory statements.
    • The young man much resented this directness of attack, and in the war of words which followed when they met he did not scruple publicly to insult Mr Clare, without respect for his gray hairs.1891, Thomas Hardy, chapter XXVI, in Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: James R[ipley] Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., […]...
    • The lower classes live in a state of war, a war of words. Their readiness is the product of the same fiery individualism as the readiness of the old fighting oligarchs. Any cabman has to be ready with his tongue, as any gentleman of the last century had to be ready with his sword.1901, G[ilbert] K[eith] Chesterton, chapter 13, in The Defendant, London: R. Brimley Johnson, →OCLC

war of words meaning in Kannada

war of words in Kannada

ಬಾಯ್ಗಾಳೆಗ, ಬಾಯಿಗಾಳೆಗ

Forms of war of words

pluralwars of words

Questions about war of words

What does war of words mean?
War of words means a heated exchange of threatening or inflammatory statements.
What is war of words in Kannada?
War of words in Kannada is ಬಾಯ್ಗಾಳೆಗ, ಬಾಯಿಗಾಳೆಗ. See War of words meaning in Kannada.
What part of speech is war of words?
War of words is a noun.
What is the plural of war of words?
The plural of war of words is wars of words.

Words near war of words in the dictionary

  1. war of the currents
  2. War of the Pacific
  3. War of the Rebellion
  4. War of the Roses
  5. War of the Sicilian Vespers
  6. war of words
  7. War on Christmas
  8. War on Terror
  9. War on Terrorism
  10. War on Women
  11. war orphan

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: war of words (page history and authors); war of words (Kannada Wiktionary) (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: En-au-war of words.ogg.

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