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Definition of 'guerrilla'

Word Frequency

guerrilla

(gərɪlə ) also guerilla

Word forms: plural guerrillas

countable noun [oft NOUN noun]

A guerrilla is someone who fights as part of an unofficial army, usually against an official army or police force.

The guerrillas threatened to kill their hostages.

...a guerrilla war.

Synonyms: freedom fighter, partisan, irregular, underground fighter More Synonyms of guerrilla

COBUILD Advanced English Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers

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guerrilla

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Word Frequency

guerrilla in British English

or guerilla (ɡəˈrɪlə )

noun

1.

a.

a member of an irregular usually politically motivated armed force that combats stronger regular forces, such as the army or police

b.

(as modifier)

guerrilla warfare

2.

a form of vegetative spread in which the advance is from several individual rhizomes or stolons growing rapidly away from the centre, as in some clovers

Compare phalanx

Collins English Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers

Derived forms

guerrillaism (guerˈrillaism) or guerillaism (gueˈrillaism)

noun

Word origin

C19: from Spanish, diminutive of guerra war

Word Frequency

guerrilla in American English

(gəˈrɪlə )

noun

1. Archaic

warfare carried on by guerrillas

2.

any member of a small defensive force of irregular soldiers, usually volunteers, making surprise raids, esp. behind the lines of an invading enemy army

adjective

3.

of or by guerrillas

4.

characteristic of guerrillas; undercover, clandestine, etc. or radical, subversive, etc.

Also sp. gueˈrilla

Webster’s New World College Dictionary, 4th Edition. Copyright © 2010 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved.

Word origin

Sp, dim. of guerra, war < Fr guerre or It guerra, both < Frank *werra: see war1

Word Frequency

guerrilla in American English

(ɡəˈrɪlə)

noun

1.

a member of a band of irregular soldiers that uses guerrilla warfare, harassing the enemy by surprise raids, sabotaging communication and supply lines, etc

adjective

2.

pertaining to such fighters or their technique of warfare

guerrilla strongholds

guerrilla tactics

Also: guerilla

Most material © 2005, 1997, 1991 by Penguin Random House LLC. Modified entries © 2019 by Penguin Random House LLC and HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

Derived forms

guerrillaism

noun

Word origin

[1800–10; ‹ Sp, dim. of guerra war (‹ Gmc; cf. war1); orig. in reference to the Spanish resistance against Napoleon; the name for the struggle erroneously taken as a personal n.]

Examples of 'guerrilla' in a sentence
guerrilla

These examples have been automatically selected and may contain sensitive content. Read more…

Rebels have been warning of a turn to guerrilla warfare.We are trained for guerrilla street war.And guerrilla wars are notoriously hard to win.After about three months of heavy training we were a disciplined force of guerrilla fighters.They were protected by armed guerrillas and camouflaged beneath tropical leaves.The second part is outright guerrilla warfare.This is the new guerrilla gardening army.It was like urban guerrilla warfare.This would have involved a revolutionary guerrilla war in the zones occupied by the Nationalists.This is a guerrilla army that has gone quiet, but not gone away.

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guerrilla

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In other languages
guerrilla

British English: guerrilla NOUN

A guerrilla is someone who fights as part of an unofficial army, usually against an official army or police force.

The guerrillas threatened to kill their hostages.

American English: guerrilla
Brazilian Portuguese: guerrilheiro
Chinese: 游击队员
European Spanish: guerrillero
French: guérillero
German: Guerillakämpfer
Italian: guerrigliero
Japanese: 遊撃隊員
Korean: 게릴라병
European Portuguese: guerrilheiro
Latin American Spanish: guerrillero

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Nearby words of
guerrilla

Related terms of
guerrilla

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Definition of guerrilla from the Collins English Dictionary

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Scrabble score
for 'guerrilla':
10

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