How to Use First World War in a Sentence

First World War

noun
  • During the First World War, the house was shattered by shelling.
    Hamish Bowles, Vogue, 19 Mar. 2024
  • The fighting would hark back to the awful trench warfare of the First World War.
    Susan B. Glasser, The New Yorker, 9 Oct. 2023
  • France’s entry into the First World War, in 1914, derailed the première, and the full score was lost.
    The New Yorker, 12 Apr. 2024
  • His father had been killed in the First World War; his mother was a nightmare.
    James Parker, The Atlantic, 12 Feb. 2024
  • The cruise came just a few years after the world and its borders were disrupted by the First World War.
    Francesca Street, CNN, 30 Mar. 2023
  • This rebellion was exactly the kind of blow that was dealt to Russia in 1917, when the country was fighting the First World War.
    Jessica Hornik, National Review, 13 July 2023
  • Around the time of the First World War, Coxon operated a tea shop staffed by servers in navy blazers and long cotton pants.
    Eric Twardzik, Robb Report, 26 July 2024
  • But both of Bateson’s brothers died young—one in a hopeless infantry charge just a few weeks before the end of the First World War, and one by suicide four years later.
    Margaret Talbot, The New Yorker, 22 Jan. 2024
  • The commission announced last week that Milner had discovered the remnants of an urgent arms race from the First World War.
    Daniel Wu, Washington Post, 1 Sep. 2023
  • During the First World War, collective nudity was said to strengthen morale among troops.
    Lauren Collins, The New Yorker, 14 Sep. 2024
  • The first cycle starts with the breakdown of the economic order that existed before the First World War that many countries tried to restore after 1918.
    Martin Daunton, Fortune, 17 Nov. 2023
  • Mark’s family lived here until the beginning of the First World War and the revolution, burying their dead in the local Dutch cemetery.
    Haiane Avakian, The Atlantic, 27 Sep. 2023
  • The failure to reestablish the global economic order after the First World War led to a loss of legitimacy and a search for new solutions.
    Martin Daunton, Fortune, 17 Nov. 2023
  • Winspear’s interest in the experiences of soldiers in the First World War arose in part from her interactions with her own grandfather.
    Erik Pedersen, San Diego Union-Tribune, 12 June 2024
  • In the First World War, a roughly equal number of combatants and civilians were killed globally — approximately 10 million on each side.
    Bryan Walsh, Vox, 27 May 2024
  • At the dawn of the First World War, with aircraft now flying above the battlefield, pilots had a birds-eye view of the enemy position and could relay information about high-value targets to their own artillery.
    Cody Cottier, Discover Magazine, 9 Sep. 2024
  • Instead, much of this awkward English-language period piece focuses on peasants’ struggle to overthrow padrone control just after the First World War.
    Dennis Harvey, Variety, 2 June 2023
  • Synonymous with the utilitarian coat British soldiers wore in the trenches during the First World War, the military garment has become a wardrobe essential that has been reimagined by designers and brands countless times over.
    Paula Lee, Glamour, 29 Nov. 2023
  • However, conversions from pocket watches to wristwatches during the First World War resulted in pieces that carried over this unique feature into the military timepiece.
    Oren Hartov, Robb Report, 13 June 2024

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

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