pre-emptive strike

1. 1.

   a surprise attack that is launched in order to prevent the enemy from doing it to you

   Broadersurprise attack

Questions about pre-emptive strike

What does pre-emptive strike mean?

pre-emptive strike means "a surprise attack that is launched in order to prevent the enemy from doing it to you".

Is pre-emptive strike a common word?

pre-emptive strike is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.