Standard Lemma guide

pre-war

adj · 5 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /pɹiːˈwɔː/
  • General-American: /pɹiˈwɔɹ/
  • General-American: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Before a war.

Before the most recent or significant war in a culture's history.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: not-comparable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

adj

Meaning 2

Before a war.

Before the outbreak of World War I in 1914.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: not-comparable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

adj

Meaning 3

Before a war.

Before the outbreak of World War II in 1939.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: not-comparable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

adj

Meaning 4

Before a war.

Before the outbreak of World War II in 1939.

Especially pre-war architecture: buildings (particularly in and around New York) built between 1900 and about 1940.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: not-comparable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

5

adj

Meaning 5

Before a war.

Before the outbreak of World War II in 1939.

Between the end of World War I in 1918 and the outbreak of World War II in 1939; interwar, especially Weimar Republic Germany.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: not-comparable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *per- Proto-Indo-European *preh2- Proto-Indo-European *-i Proto-Indo-European *préh2i? Proto-Italic *prai Proto-Italic *prai- Latin prae-lbor. Middle English pre- English pre- English war English pre-war From pre- + war.

Across languages

Translations

23 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Belarusian: давае́нны (davajénny) — Before a war
  • Belarusian: перадвае́нны (pjeradvajénny) — Before a war
  • Chinese Mandarin: 戰前 /战前 (zhànqián) — Before a war
  • Czech: předválečný — Before a war
  • French: d'avant-guerre — Before a war
  • Georgian: ომამდელი (omamdeli) — Before a war
  • German: Vorkriegs- — Before a war
  • German: vorkrieglich — Before a war
  • Hungarian: háború előtti — Before a war
  • Italian: prebellico — Before a war
  • Italian: antebellico — Before a war
  • Latvian: pirmskara — Before a war
  • Occitan: abansguèrra — Before a war
  • Occitan: prebellic — Before a war
  • Occitan: antebellic — Before a war
  • Polish: przedwojenny — Before a war
  • Russian: довое́нный (dovojénnyj) — Before a war
  • Russian: предвое́нный (predvojénnyj) — Before a war
  • Serbo-Croatian: predratni — Before a war
  • Slovak: predvojnový — Before a war
  • Tagalog: dipa-digma — Before a war
  • Ukrainian: довоє́нний (dovojénnyj) — Before a war
  • Ukrainian: передвоє́нний (peredvojénnyj) — Before a war