prisoner of war

English

WOTD – 18 August 2022

Etymology

Calque of French prisonnier de guerre, prisonier de guerre (obsolete).[1]

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈpɹɪz.(ə).nə əv ˈwɔː/
  • (General American) IPA(key): /ˈpɹɪz.(ə).nɚ əv ˈwoɹ/
  • Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)
  • Hyphenation: pri‧son‧er of war
  • Audio (Canada):(file)

Noun

prisoner of war (plural prisoners of war)

  1. A combatant or soldier who is captured by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict. [from early 17th c.]
    Synonyms: (abbreviations) POW, PW
    As a prisoner of war, he was interrogated by his enemy captors.

Derived terms

Translations

References

  1. ^ “prisoner of war, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, June 2022; “prisoner of war, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

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