war-game

1 of 2

verb

war-gamed; war-gaming; war-games

transitive verb

: to plan or conduct in the manner of a war game
war-gamed an invasionNewsweek

intransitive verb

: to conduct a war game

war game

2 of 2

noun

1
: a simulated battle or campaign to test military concepts and usually conducted in conferences by officers acting as the opposing staffs
2
: a two-sided umpired training maneuver with actual elements of the armed forces participating

Examples of war-game in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
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Verb
Roger Livesey stars as Clive Candy, a lifelong British soldier first seen losing a war-games exercise after his young opponent chooses not to play by the rules. Keith Phipps, Vulture, 22 Nov. 2024 My flight was to be part of a larger war-games exercise involving five other aircraft. Jim Clash, Forbes, 11 Dec. 2024
Noun
China dispatched a naval group led by an aircraft carrier to the western Pacific Ocean after the United States deployed ship-sinking missiles in the Philippines for a bilateral war game. Thomas G. Moukawsher, MSNBC Newsweek, 24 Apr. 2025 In war games that simulate a conflict in the Taiwan Strait, Washington runs out of key munitions within weeks. Michael Brown, Foreign Affairs, 22 Apr. 2025 See All Example Sentences for war-game

Word History

First Known Use

Verb

1942, in the meaning defined at transitive sense

Noun

1828, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of war-game was in 1828

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Cite this Entry

“War-game.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/war-game. Accessed 19 May. 2025.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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