How to Use civil war in a Sentence

civil war

noun
  • The country is on the brink of civil war.
  • How much does the civil war there play to them, give them space?
    — CBS News, 11 May 2022
  • That’s a part of the world that has had a very tough time in a civil war.
    — Tanya Lewis, Scientific American, 17 Feb. 2023
  • As in most civil wars, the two camps have more in common than not.
    — Naaman Zhou, New Yorker, 18 June 2026
  • So, the civil wars of the 1640s.
    — Sean Woods, Rolling Stone, 25 May 2026
  • There are people in this country who claim to want a civil war.
    — Brian Davids, The Hollywood Reporter, 9 Apr. 2024
  • America is a long way from a civil war.
    — Robert Pape, Chicago Tribune, 8 Feb. 2026
  • Much like in a civil war, the group fractured into two.
    — Jason P. Dinh, Scientific American, 9 Apr. 2026
  • Yet that doesn't mean a civil war is inevitable or even likely.
    — Damon Linker, The Week, 4 Jan. 2022
  • And the civil war shows little sign of abating.
    — Arash Azizi, The Atlantic, 4 Oct. 2025
  • The electorate was on edge, with fears that a civil war was inevitable.
    — Michael Peregrine, Chicago Tribune, 18 May 2025
  • The 11-year civil war spanned his childhood.
    — Sophia Li, NPR, 17 Aug. 2025
  • Spain, embroiled in civil war, did not enter.
    — Literary Hub, 7 Nov. 2025
  • That all changed in April 2023 when civil war broke out.
    — Michal Ruprecht, NPR, 8 Sep. 2025
  • Experts tell us that a civil war might be around the corner, or that one is already here.
    — Timothy Shenk, The New Republic, 12 Apr. 2022
  • During this time, Ethiopia had been involved in a decades-long civil war.
    — Allison Norlian, Forbes, 14 Sep. 2021
  • On to a 10th ballot, the most since just before the civil war.
    — Sarah Elbeshbishi, USA TODAY, 12 Jan. 2023
  • That peace shattered in 2011 when the civil war reached their city.
    — Milena Malaver, Miami Herald, 18 Oct. 2025
  • The civil war is still ongoing.
    — Miami Herald, 8 Apr. 2026
  • But for now, choose which side of the Targaryen civil war to join — or to simply buy up.
    — Nick Romano, EW.com, 22 June 2022
  • The sparks threatened to catch fire on far-right social media, where there was open talk of civil war.
    — Frida Ghitis, CNN, 10 Aug. 2022
  • Sudan's two-year civil war deepens.
    — ABC News, 9 Nov. 2025
  • Everybody’s scared to death to go into civil war.
    — Dana Karni, CNN Money, 6 Nov. 2025
  • The Syrian civil war has been going on for now a dozen years.
    — ABC News, 12 Feb. 2023
  • Yemen was in the middle of a civil war, and gun battles in the city were not unusual.
    — Ryan Lucas, NPR, 30 Mar. 2026
  • There are also growing fears of civil war breaking out in Gaza.
    — Callum Sutherland, Time, 14 Oct. 2025
  • That conflict followed years of civil war that had already pushed the country to the brink.
    — Mark Athitakis, Los Angeles Times, 31 Jan. 2024
  • The Fadels paid summer visits to Beirut, a city in the grip of civil war.
    — Michelle Ruiz, Vogue, 26 Apr. 2022
  • The resistance years were almost like a civil war in France.
    — Elsa Keslassy, Variety, 17 May 2026
  • What followed was a years-long civil war that left dozens dead and split the community in two.
    — Ryan Brennan, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 10 Apr. 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'civil war.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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