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Korean War

Korean War

36 3.7
A 1950 to 1953 war between North and South Korea with the United Nations, China, and the Soviet Union
  • proper noun
  • /kəˈriːən wɔːr/
translation icon : Guerra de Corea
  • There is even talk of a possible peace treaty to bring the Korean War to a formal end.
  • outbreak of the Korean War
  • end of the Korean War
  • 1950 Korean War

She was a nurse in the Korean War.

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Examples

  • Yes, now I recall; her husband was an army officer killed in the Korean War.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • And her father went to the Korean War when she was only three.

    Fiction book (1993)
  • No, that was the Korean War.

  • I served in the Air Force in the Korean War and am proud of it.

    Blog text (5)
  • My uncle fought in the Korean War.

  • I was born shortly after the Korean War ended, and I grew up reading comic books about that war.

    Fiction book (1993)
  • However, the unexpected outbreak of the Korean War on 25 June 1950 changed everything.

    Academic text (1997)
  • For instance, in the Korean War, both the U.S. and China declared themselves to be victors.

    Academic text (1995)
  • In the summer of 1950, the Korean War broke out, ending in an uneasy truce in 1953.

    Academic text (1993)
  • My uncle fought in the Korean War.

Surface Forms

Korean War main

Morphology

Korean + war

The meaning 'a war involving Korea' is directly derivable from combining 'Korean' (of or relating to Korea) with 'war' (armed conflict), so a B1 learner who knows both words will understand it refers to a conflict concerning Korea. Naming conflicts as Country + "War" is cross-linguistically common, making the composition transparent even though precise historical details (dates, belligerents) are not inferable from the phrase alone.

Etymology

Korean War gets its name from where the fighting happened: the country of Korea had been split into North and South, and when the two sides fought from 1950 to 1953 people called that fighting the Korean War, so the phrase means the 1950 to 1953 war between North and South Korea.