Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A war between factions or regions of the same country.
- noun The war in the United States between the Union and the Confederacy from 1861 to 1865.
- noun The war in England between the Parliamentarians and the Royalists from 1642 to 1648.
- noun A state of hostility or conflict between elements within an organization.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
war fought between factions of the inhabitants of a single country, or the citizens of a single republic.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a war between factions in the same country
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Calque of Latin bellum civile, in English from 1651 in reference to the English Civil War, with possible early use in the 15th and 16th centuries as wer cyuile or ciuill warre.
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Examples
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