psychological warfare

English

Pronunciation

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Noun

psychological warfare (uncountable)

1. (idiomatic) A mentally manipulative approach to warfare involving use of techniques to demoralize or intimidate someone into surrender.
   • 1989 June 21 [1989 June 19], “Premier Li Huan Visits Kinmen Island 18 Jun”, in Daily Report: China‎^[1], numbers 81-118, Foreign Broadcast Information Service, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 81, column 2:

     Li also inspected a psychological warfare unit at Huchingtou, Liehyu, where he saw off a balloon carrying materials showing the free bastion of Taiwan's warm support for the pro-democracy movement on the China mainland.

   • 1996 March 15, Michael Evans, “China offensive cannot be ruled out, experts say”, in The Times‎^[2], number 65,528, →ISSN, →OCLC, Overseas News, page 14, column 3:

     The intelligence services believe it is more likely the Chinese would use psychological warfare to give the impression they were about to seize one of the islands, rather than carry it out. However, if there was pressure within the Chinese military to achieve at least a token military success against Taiwan, this option could not be dismissed.

Synonyms

• war of nerves

Translations

mentally manipulative approach to warfare

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Armenian: ջիղերու պատերազմ (ǰiġeru paterazm)
• Asturian: guerra psicolóxica f
• Basque: gerra psikologiko
• Bulgarian: психологическа война f (psihologičeska vojna)
• Catalan: guerra psicològica f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 心理戰／心理战 (zh) (xīnlǐzhàn)

• Czech: psychologická válka f
• Danish: psykologisk krigsførelse c
• Dutch: psychologische oorlogsvoering f
• Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
• Estonian: psühholoogiline sõda
• Finnish: psykologinen sodankäynti
• French: guerre psychologique (fr) f
• Galician: guerra psicolóxica f
• German: psychologische Kriegsführung f
• Greek: ψυχολογικός πόλεμος m (psychologikós pólemos)
• Italian: guerra psicologica f
• Japanese: 心理戦 (しんりせん, shinrisen)
• Kazakh:

  Arabic: پسىيحولوگىييالىق سوعىس

  Cyrillic: психологиялық соғыс (psixologiälyq soğys)

  Latin: psïxologïyalıq soğıs

• Korean: 심리전 (ko) (simnijeon)
• Latvian: psiholoģiskais karš m
• Lithuanian: psichologinis karas m
• Macedonian: психолошка војна f (psihološka vojna)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: psykologisk krigføring m or f

  Nynorsk: psykologisk krigføring c

• Polish: wojna psychologiczna f
• Portuguese: guerra psicológica f
• Romanian: război psihologic (ro) n
• Russian: психологическая война (psixologičeskaja vojna)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: психолошки рат m

  Roman: psihološki rat m

• Slovak: psychologická vojna f
• Slovene: psihološka vojna f
• Spanish: guerra psicológica f
• Swedish: psykologisk krigföring (sv) c
• Thai: สงครามจิตวิทยา (sǒng-kraam-jìt-dtà-wít-tá-yaa)
• Turkish: psikolojik harp (tr), psikolojik savaş (tr)
• Ukrainian: психологічна війна f (psyxolohična vijna)
• Vietnamese: chiến tranh tâm lý
• Welsh: rhyfela seicolegol