war of words

noun phrase

: an argument in which people or groups criticize and disagree with each other publicly and repeatedly for usually a long time

Rival groups have engaged in a war of words over the new law.

Examples of war of words in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web The pair have been engaged in a war of words for years now, with Kimmel recently bringing his wife Molly McNearney into their feud, too. —

EW.com, 26 Sep. 2024 Zoom out: Zelensky and former President Trump are engaged in an increasingly heated war of words, and Trump's allies are not jumping to his defense. —

Andrew Solender, Axios, 26 Sep. 2024 Howard Stern and Donald Trump were locked in a war of words this week after the SiriusXM radio host shared some blunt opinions about Trump supporters. —

Zack Sharf, Variety, 20 Sep. 2024 The temperature was raised even further a month later with another war of words on social media between Musk and the EU’s top tech enforcer, Thierry Breton. —

Orianna Rosa Royle, Fortune Europe, 5 Sep. 2024 See all Example Sentences for war of words

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'war of words.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.