flame war

See also: flamewar

English

Alternative forms

• flamewar

Etymology

From flame +‎ war.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

flame war (plural flame wars)

1. (Internet) An argument consisting entirely or largely of flames by various parties that serve only to escalate the dispute.
   • 2008 July 12, Megan McArdle, “Note to trolls”, in The Atlantic‎^[1]:

     Remember, Smokey the Bear says, "Only you can prevent flame wars".

   • 2019, Kamran Amini, Extreme C, Packt Publishing Ltd, →ISBN, page 362:

     That post was the starting point for a flame war between Linux creator Linus Torvalds and Tanenbaum and a bunch of other enthusiasts, who later became the first Linux developers.

Translations

A written dispute

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 謾罵戰／谩骂战 (mànmàzhàn)

• Finnish: polemiikki (fi)
• French: polémique (fr) f
• Polish: flame war m
• Portuguese: flame war f
• Russian: флейм (ru) m (flejm), срач (ru) (srač)

See also

• flame bait