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total war

/ˈtoʊtəl wɔr/
IPA guide

A military conflict that involves civilian targets and uses every available resource for fighting is known as total war.

Today, total war would defy international laws and agreements about the use of military force. Just as the term implies, all rules are off the table in a total war: any weapons can be used, and any person or place can be targeted with violence. Countries engaging in this kind of combat tend to see every citizen as a resource to be used in the war. Most historians consider both World War I and World War II to have been total wars.

Definitions of total war
  1. noun
    military conflict with no restrictions on targets, weapons, or use of military or civilian resources
    see moresee less
    antonyms:
    limited war
    a war whose objective is less than the unconditional defeat of the enemy
    type of:
    war, warfare
    the waging of armed conflict against an enemy
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