total war

English

Etymology

Calque of German totaler Krieg, coined by Erich Ludendorff.

Pronunciation

• Audio (Southern England):

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Noun

total war (countable and uncountable, plural total wars)

1. Warfare where all of a country's available resources, military as well as civilian, are employed.
   • 1962, Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of Revolution. 1789-1848, page 67:

     In the course of its crisis the young French Republic discovered or invented total war: the total mobilization of a nation's resources through conscription, rationing and a rigidly controlled war economy, and virtual abolition, at home or abroad, of the distinction between soldiers and civilians.

Translations

warfare where all of a country's resources are employed

• Arabic: الحَرْب الشَّامِلَة f (al-ḥarb aš-šāmila)
• Armenian: տոտալ պատերազմ (total paterazm)
• Belarusian: татальная вайна f (tatalʹnaja vajna)
• Bulgarian: тотална война f (totalna vojna)
• Catalan: guerra total f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 總體戰 / 总体战 (zh) (zǒngtǐzhàn)

• Czech: totální válka f
• Danish: total krig c
• Dutch: totale oorlog m
• Esperanto: totala milito
• Finnish: totaalinen sota, totaalinen sodankäynti
• French: guerre totale (fr) f
• Galician: guerra total f
• Georgian: მთელი ომი (mteli omi)
• German: totaler Krieg (de) m
• Greek: ολοκληρωτικός πόλεμος m (oloklirotikós pólemos)
• Hebrew: מלחמה כוללת f (milkhome kulelet)
• Hungarian: totális háború
• Indonesian: perang total (id)
• Italian: guerra totale f
• Japanese: 国家総力戦 (kokka-sō-rikisen), 総力戦 (sōryoku-sen)
• Korean: 총력전 (chongnyeokjeon)
• Macedonian: тотална војна f (totalna vojna)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: total krig m

  Nynorsk: total krig m, total krigføring m

• Persian: جنگ تمام‌عیار (jang tamâm ayar)
• Polish: wojna totalna f
• Portuguese: guerra total f
• Romanian: război total n
• Russian: тотальная война f (totalʹnaja vojna)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: тотални рат m

  Latin: totalni rat m

• Slovak: totálna vojna f
• Slovene: totalna vojna f
• Spanish: guerra total f
• Swedish: total krigföring c
• Thai: สงครามเบ็ดเสร็จ (sǒng-kraam-bèt-sèt)
• Turkish: topyekûn savaş
• Ukrainian: тотальна війна f (totalʹna vijna)
• Vietnamese: chiến tranh toàn diện