Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

war to the knife

Word Rarity Uncommon

Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.37 in modern English

Syllables: war -to the knife
IPA

26

Scrabble Score

13

Letters

2

Syllables

11

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

Mortal combat; fighting to the death.

Countable; Uncountable

Example Sentences

"And not civil war as we knew it in England and you knew it in America, waged within certain limits of decency and humanity by disciplined forces, but civil war to the knife, altogether ferocious and anarchical, as if hell itself were let loose, as if a beautiful face were suddenly distorted with fury to the likeness of a fiend."
"By April [Amos] Kendall, [William B.] Lewis, and the others of the inner circle had dropped their subscriptions to the Telegraph, and it was indeed war to the knife."
"Wars of democracy have tended to become wars to the knife; as a modern secular religion, democracy requires unconditional surrender."
"On Wednesday [Steve] Bannon said: "The administrative and deep state after President Trump wins, starting on the afternoon of the 20th of January, every day will be like Stalingrad. It will be a war to the knife.""

Etymology

Calque of Spanish guerra al cuchillo (“extremely fierce or relentless war”).

Usage

Inflected Forms

wars to the knife (plural)

Questions

What does war to the knife mean?: Mortal combat; fighting to the death.
Where does war to the knife come from?: Calque of Spanish guerra al cuchillo (“extremely fierce or relentless war”).

How to pronounce war to the knife

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “war to the knife”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling () so you know which sounds to aim for.
Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “war to the knife”.
Repeat and practice — Say “war to the knife” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.