warfare
war·fare/ˈwɔɹfɛɹ/noun, verb
warfare is spelled W-A-R-F-A-R-E: 7 letters and 2 syllables (war·fare). It appears 11 times per million words in written English, the 6,565th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, warfare means “The waging of war or armed conflict against an enemy” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of warfare is warfares.
How many letters and syllables are in warfare?
| Letters | 7: W-A-R-F-A-R-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: war·fare |
| In writing | 11 times per million words; the 6,565th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is warfare?
Warfare appears 11 times per million words in written English, the 6,565th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce warfare?
- US /ˈwɔɹfɛɹ/
- UK /ˈwɔːfɛə/
Warfare has 2 syllables, split war·fare in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-warfare.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of warfare
- warfares plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- warfaring participle, present
- warfared participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does warfare mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The waging of war or armed conflict against an enemy.
- 2
Military operations of some particular kind e.g. guerrilla warfare.
verb
- 1
To lead a military life; to carry on continual wars.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Warfare in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | guerre , combat |
| German | Kriegsführung |
| Portuguese | batalha, combate |
| Spanish | conflicto armado, guerras, estrategia militar , guerra |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does warfare come from?
From war + fare; perhaps a shortening of Middle English werre-faringe, werfarynge (“waging war, warfare”, literally “going to war”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).