WORLD WAR I

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does World War I mean? 

• WORLD WAR I (noun)
  The noun WORLD WAR I has 1 sense:

1. a war between the allies (Russia, France, British Empire, Italy, United States, Japan, Rumania, Serbia, Belgium, Greece, Portugal, Montenegro) and the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey, Bulgaria) from 1914 to 1918

  Familiarity information: WORLD WAR I used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WORLD WAR I (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A war between the allies (Russia, France, British Empire, Italy, United States, Japan, Rumania, Serbia, Belgium, Greece, Portugal, Montenegro) and the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey, Bulgaria) from 1914 to 1918

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

First World War; Great War; War to End War; World War 1; World War I

Instance hypernyms:

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

Meronyms (parts of "World War I"):

Battle of the Marne; Belleau Wood; Chateau-Thierry; Marne River (a World War I battle in northwestern France where the Allies defeated the Germans in 1918)

battle of Caporetto; Caporetto (battle of World War I (1917); Italians were defeated by the Austrian and German forces)

Dardanelles; Dardanelles campaign (the unsuccessful campaign in World War I (1915) by the English and French to open a passage for aid to Russia; defeated by the Turks)

battle of Jutland; Jutland (an indecisive naval battle in World War I (1916); fought between the British and German fleets off the northwestern coast of Denmark)

Argonne; Argonne Forest; Meuse; Meuse-Argonne; Meuse-Argonne operation; Meuse River (an American operation in World War I (1918); American troops under Pershing drove back the German armies which were saved only by the armistice on November 11)

battle of Soissons-Reims; battle of the Aisne; battle of the Chemin-des-Dames; Soissons (a battle in World War I (May 1918); the Germans tried to attack before the American numbers were too great to defeat; the tactical success of the Germans proved to be a strategic failure)

Battle of the Somme; Somme; Somme River (battle in World War I (1916))

battle of Tannenberg; Tannenberg (a battle in World War I (1914); decisive German victory over the Russians)

battle of Verdun; Verdun (a battle in World War I (1916); in some of the bloodiest fighting in World War I the German offensive was stopped)

battle of Ypres; first battle of Ypres; Ypres (battle in World War I (1914); heavy but indecisive fighting as the Allies and the Germans both tried to break through the lines of the others)

battle of Ypres; second battle of Ypres; Ypres (battle in World War I (1915); Germans wanted to try chlorine (a toxic yellow gas) as a weapon and succeeded in taking considerable territory from the Allied salient)

battle of Ypres; third battle of Ypres; Ypres (battle in World War I (1917); an Allied offensive which eventually failed because tanks bogged down in the waterlogged soil of Flanders; Germans introduced mustard gas which interfered with the Allied artillery)

 Context examples 

Mustard gas is a vesicant that was first used in chemical warfare in World War I, but is now only used in small amounts in research studies involving alkylating agents.

(Mustard Gas, NCI Thesaurus)