the.com/world war
When regional grudges get ambitious enough to need a global map.
means A war fought among major powers across multiple continents and theaters, pulling most of the globe into one fight.
from A straightforward compound: 'world' + 'war,' first stitched together to describe conflicts too big for any single front. English writers floated the phrase before the 20th century, but it caught hold for real once a 1914–1918 European war dragged in colonies, navies, and allies worldwide — and became unavoidable once a second one, decades later, confirmed the first needed a number.
- body count
- WWII killed roughly 3 percent of humanity
- the count
- only two so far, both last century
- naming irony
- World War I was called the war to end wars
- trigger size
- WWI started over one assassinated archduke