world war

1. 1.

   a war in which the major nations of the world are involved

   Broaderwar

   NarrowerWorld War IWorld War II

Questions about world war

What does world war mean?

world war means "a war in which the major nations of the world are involved".

Is world war a common word?

world 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.