How to Use holy war in a Sentence

holy war

noun
  • The other was to claim the mantle of the global leader of a holy war.
    Washington Post, 13 Aug. 2021
  • Solovyov claims that Russia is embroiled in a holy war against Ukraine and the West.
    Jay Nordlinger, National Review, 9 Jan. 2023
  • Is there a holy war between oval and square devotees and this was the compromise?
    Elizabeth Lopatto, The Verge, 24 Mar. 2023
  • Russia's war in Ukraine is also something of a holy war.
    Peter Weber, The Week, 19 Apr. 2022
  • For Torba, this seems to be a welcome challenge, something akin to a holy war.
    Jacob Silverman, The New Republic, 23 Aug. 2021
  • To fight those who aid and abet trafficking—as Exodus Cry claims that Pornhub does—is to wage holy war.
    Melissa Gira Grant, The New Republic, 10 Dec. 2020
  • Some reportedly described their struggle as akin to the opening salvo of a holy war.
    Desiree Stennett, orlandosentinel.com, 29 Oct. 2021
  • Officials here fear that the Taliban takeover in Kabul could embolden such extremists to launch a new holy war at home.
    Washington Post, 25 Sep. 2021
  • Plus the star himself has openly expressed interest in returning to the holy war raging on the streets of Los Angeles.
    Meredith Woerner, Variety, 16 Sep. 2022
  • Paul’s reluctance to fall into the role created for him isn’t the usual self-doubt, but the dread of someone who begins to believe he’s meant to initiate a holy war.
    Alison Willmore, Vulture, 12 Sep. 2021
  • These young martyrs in training found the perfect holy war in the American Revolution.
    San Diego Union-Tribune, 5 Sep. 2021
  • Filling the void were Islamic schools known as madrassas that shaped the minds of future young Taliban fighters, their learning and their childhoods inevitably cut short by the lure of jihad, or holy war.
    Washington Post, 12 Nov. 2021
  • Following a holy war between Europe and Islam, the world has splintered into a series of miniature nations.
    Aaron Timms, The New Republic, 2 Sep. 2022
  • QAnon became a holy war, while PoGo remained a game, requiring a willing suspension of disbelief.
    Virginia Heffernan, Wired, 22 Sep. 2020
  • The series tries to stage a Christian versus pagan holy war while recognizing the multifaceted nature of religious life at the time.
    David M. Perry, Smithsonian Magazine, 24 Feb. 2022
  • We Guelphs know that more crucial — by far — than any pandemic discussion is the esoteric debate about whether to use guild taxes to support the pope in his holy war against the Holy Roman Emperor!
    Georgia Garvey, chicagotribune.com, 26 Apr. 2021
  • Timimi preached that the Sept. 11 attacks portended a global holy war between Muslims and non-believers.
    Matthew Barakat, Star Tribune, 18 Aug. 2020
  • Many rioters, a largely white group, were motivated by religious fervor and saw themselves as participants in a kind of holy war.
    New York Times, 7 Feb. 2021
  • And a dozen years later, a holy war of sorts among the group’s adherents and a breakaway Muslim sect culminated in a set of deadly sieges in Washington, D.C., one of the most violent incidents ever in the nation’s capital.
    Edward Kosner, WSJ, 28 Dec. 2022
  • That the language of spiritual warfare, demonic forces, good and evil is creating exactly the sort of radical worldview that could turn politics into holy war.
    Stephanie McCrummen, Anchorage Daily News, 12 July 2021
  • Piracy during the early centuries was mainly religiously motivated — Al-jihad fi’l-bahr, or holy war at sea.
    David F. Eisner, National Review, 31 May 2021
  • Religious leaders endorsed by the state presented the fight against Hitler as a holy war, blending Islamic devotion with Soviet patriotism.
    Jeff Eden, Foreign Affairs, 19 Apr. 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'holy 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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