pre-war

See also: prewar

English

Alternative forms

• prewar

Etymology

pre- +‎ war

Adjective

pre-war (not comparable)

1. Before a war.
   1. Before the most recent or significant war in a culture's history.
   2. Before the outbreak of World War I in 1914.
   3. Before the outbreak of World War II in 1939.
      1. Especially pre-war architecture: buildings (particularly in and around New York) built between 1900 and about 1940.
      2. Between the end of World War I in 1918 and the outbreak of World War II in 1939; interwar, especially Weimar Republic Germany.

Usage notes

With reference to the World Wars, pre-war (before the outbreak of World War I in 1914) is contrasted with interwar (between the end of World War I in 1918 and the outbreak of World War II in 1939) and post-war (after the end of World War II in 1945), but is also used to refer to some period prior to the outbreak of World War II.

Synonyms

• antebellum

Antonyms

• post-war

Coordinate terms

• interwar

Translations

Before a war

• Belarusian: давае́нны (davajénny), перадвае́нны (pjeradvajénny)
• Czech: předválečný (cs)
• French: d’avant-guerre
• German: Vorkriegs- (de), vorkrieglich
• Hungarian: háború előtti
• Italian: prebellico (it), antebellico
• Latvian: pirmskara
• Occitan: abansguèrra, prebellic, antebellic
• Polish: przedwojenny (pl) m
• Russian: довое́нный (ru) (dovojénnyj), предвое́нный (ru) (predvojénnyj)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Roman: predratni (sh)

• Slovak: predvojnový
• Tagalog: dipa-digma
• Ukrainian: довоє́нний (dovojénnyj), передвоє́нний (peredvojénnyj)

Further reading

• “pre-war”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• pre-war, prewar at Google Ngram Viewer

Anagrams

• rewrap, warper