prisoner of war

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

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

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

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[edit]

Translations[edit]

References[edit]

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

Further reading[edit]