go to war

1. 1.

   commence hostilities

   Synonymstake armstake up arms

   Broaderwar

Questions about go to war

What does go to war mean?

go to war means "commence hostilities".

What is another word for go to war?

Close synonyms include take arms, take up arms. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is go to war a common word?

go to war is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.