counterinsurgency
/kˌaʊntɚɪnsˈɝdʒənsi/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.53 in modern English
25
Scrabble Score
17
Letters
6
Syllables
11
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Any political or military action taken to defeat insurgency, especially during guerrilla warfare.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "The United States will continue to pursue a military and civilian counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan."
- "Mr. Petraeus almost single-handedly forced a profound evolution in the country’s military thinking and doctrine with his philosophy of counterinsurgency, focused more on protecting the civilian population than on killing enemies."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱe? Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm Proto-Italic *kom Proto-Italic *kom- Proto-Indo-European *-teros Proto-Italic *-teros Proto-Italic *komterosder. Proto-Italic *komterād Latin contrāder. Old French contre- Anglo-Norman countre-bor. Middle English counter- English counter- English insurgent English -cy English insurgency English counterinsurgency From counter- + insurgency.