From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishworld warˌworld ˈwar noun [countable] a war involving many of the countries of the world fears of another world war Churchill was prime minister during the Second World War. the years after World War I
Examples from the Corpus
world war• That is almost twice as many as died in the first world war.• He won the Military Cross and rose to Major in the first world war.• At the beginning of the first world war he applied unsuccessfully to rejoin the army.• Never since the first world war have we had homeless teenage children begging in the streets.• The whispering against Bradman increased during the second world war.• We see newsreel footage of cavalry, blazing buildings, war planes - from revolutions, civil war, world war. 