guerrilla

1 of 2

noun

guer·​ril·​la gə-ˈri-lə How to pronounce guerrilla (audio)
ge-,
g(y)i-
variants or guerilla
: a person who engages in irregular warfare especially as a member of an independent unit carrying out harassment and sabotage (see sabotage sense 2)
Guerrillas controlled half the country.

guerrilla

2 of 2

adjective

: of, relating to, or suggestive of guerrillas especially in being aggressive, radical, or unconventional
guerrilla warfare

Examples of guerrilla in a Sentence

Noun The guerrillas controlled half the country.
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
But most of the explosives are improvised, Sullivan said, and probably made with the help of former soldiers and guerrilla fighters from Colombia, where a 2016 peace deal between the government and the nation’s biggest rebel group, the FARC, left many combatants unemployed. Keegan Hamilton, Los Angeles Times, 9 Mar. 2024 North Vietnamese soldiers and allied guerrillas, known to U.S. forces as Viet Cong or V.C., pressed closer through the jungle. Brian Murphy, Washington Post, 26 Jan. 2024 Tamil guerrillas set off street bombs in Colombo while the corpses of JVP revolutionaries floated down rivers. Anjum Hasan, The New York Review of Books, 28 Dec. 2023 Lorenz was only released after the West German government agreed to free several RAF guerrillas in a trade. Christopher F. Schuetze, New York Times, 1 Mar. 2024 Russia's conventional blitzkrieg was beaten back by Ukrainian guerrillas. John Bacon, USA TODAY, 22 Feb. 2024 However, in the last few months, a resurgence of violence by dissidents from the FARC, other guerrilla groups and drug cartels has closed many regions to scientists once again. Santiago Flórez, Smithsonian Magazine, 6 Feb. 2024 The two Cobras then made strafing runs for the next 45 minutes, skimming just above the jungle canopy, to try to push back the 100 or so guerrillas, known as the Viet Cong. Brian Murphy, Washington Post, 2 Feb. 2024 Without intervention, human immune cells treat these foreign molecules like invading guerrillas, resulting in swelling or blood clotting that can grind organ functions to a halt. Elizabeth Svoboda, Discover Magazine, 3 Dec. 2023
Adjective
She became known as a muse of desbunde, an anti-military but also anti-guerrilla nonconformist zeitgeist. Phil Davison, Washington Post, 11 Nov. 2022 The attacks have prompted Moscow to send anti-guerrilla units to Kherson, Mr. Saldo said. Yuras Karmanau and Hanna Arhirova, The Christian Science Monitor, 9 Aug. 2022 Experts say ex-guerrilla fighters, who once occupied the most remote parts of Colombia’s jungles, forests, mountains, and savannas, are uniquely prepared to aid scientists with ongoing conservation efforts. Lindsey McGinnis, The Christian Science Monitor, 7 Aug. 2020 That was the year that social media really started to take off, which gave restaurants and bars this megaphone to kind of guerrilla market on their own. BostonGlobe.com, 11 Sep. 2019 Paolo Luers, a journalist and former guerrilla press officer who became part of Mijango’s team, told me. Daniel Castro, Harper's magazine, 10 June 2019 Maybe a little too guerrilla style for some of the crews. Gary Thompson, Philly.com, 5 Apr. 2018 Her interviews were guerrilla achievements and global events. Dwight Garner, New York Times, 16 Oct. 2017

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'guerrilla.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Noun and Adjective

Spanish guerrilla, from diminutive of guerra war, of Germanic origin; akin to Old High German werra strife — more at war

First Known Use

Noun

1809, in the meaning defined above

Adjective

1811, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of guerrilla was in 1809

Dictionary Entries Near guerrilla

Cite this Entry

“Guerrilla.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/guerrilla. Accessed 18 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

guerrilla

noun
guer·​ril·​la
variants or guerilla
gə-ˈril-ə
: a member of a band of persons engaged in warfare not as part of a regular army but as an independent unit making surprise raids behind enemy lines
guerrilla adjective
Etymology

Noun

from Spanish guerrilla, literally, "small war," from guerra "war"

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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