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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

guerrilla.

A soldier in a small independent group, fighting against the government or regular forces by surprise raids.

9 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ɡəˈɹɪlə/UK/ɡəˈɹɪlə/US/ɡəˈɹijə/US/ˌɡeɪˈɹijə/US
  1. A soldier in a small independent group, fighting against the government or regular forces by surprise raids.

    The right-wing paramilitary's offensive against the Marxist guerrillas failed because they did not know the terrain well enough.
  2. A non-official war carried out by small independent groups; a guerrilla war.

    archaic
  3. A marketer who uses guerrilla marketing techniques.

  4. A maker of guerrilla television.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *wers-der. Proto-Germanic *werzaną Proto-West Germanic *werʀan Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Germanic *-ō Proto-West Germanic *-u Frankish *werʀubor. Early Medieval Latin werra Spanish guerra Proto-Indo-European *-lós Proto-Indo-European *-elós Proto-Italic *-elos Latin -lus Latin -ellus Latin -ella Old Spanish -iella Spanish -illa Spanish guerrillabor. English guerrilla Borrowed from Spanish guerrilla, diminutive of guerra (“war”), coined during the Peninsular War.

adj/ɡəˈɹɪlə/UK/ɡəˈɹɪlə/US/ɡəˈɹijə/US/ˌɡeɪˈɹijə/US
  1. Relating to, using, or typical of guerrilla warfare, or its principles of small independent or non-official perpetrators.

  2. Relating to, using, or typical of guerrilla marketing.

  3. Using unconventional, non-traditional, non-mainstream and often subversive practices to achieve something.

    guerrilla marketing
    guerrilla tourism
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *wers-der. Proto-Germanic *werzaną Proto-West Germanic *werʀan Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Germanic *-ō Proto-West Germanic *-u Frankish *werʀubor. Early Medieval Latin werra Spanish guerra Proto-Indo-European *-lós Proto-Indo-European *-elós Proto-Italic *-elos Latin -lus Latin -ellus Latin -ella Old Spanish -iella Spanish -illa Spanish guerrillabor. English guerrilla Borrowed from Spanish guerrilla, diminutive of guerra (“war”), coined during the Peninsular War.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.