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Glite Dictionary
arms control

arms control

37 4.3
Rules that limit a country's weapons and armed forces, often agreed between countries
  • noun
  • /ɑrmz kənˈtroʊl/
  • Formal
translation icon : control de armamentos
  • The treaty focused on arms control to limit the number of nuclear weapons each country could possess.
  • arms control negotiations
  • nuclear arms control
  • arms control agreements

He's an expert in arms control, security, and many other things.

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Examples

  • U.S.-Soviet relations reached a new low point, just as the arms control process staggered to culmination.

    Academic text (1991)

  • Efforts on arms control began immediately after World War II with the Baruch Plan.

    Academic text (1990)

  • First, the major purpose of arms control was saving money rather than making nuclear war less likely.

    Academic text (1991)

  • I'll talk about the outlook for arms control as I see it.

  • Korea is a place in East Asia where arms control initiatives seem particularly timely.

    Academic text (1991)

  • Useful as they are, the limited achievements of past arms control efforts will not produce lasting stability.

    Academic text (1991)

  • Nevertheless, the debate over nuclear weapons and arms control dominated the defense policy process through the 1984 elections.

    Academic text (1991)

  • There is, however, little evidence that arms control negotiations were integral to the administration's planning and policies.

    Academic text (1990)

  • Throughout the spring of 1982, arms control stood at the center of the administration's agenda.

    Academic text (1990)

  • Forty years of arms control have managed to preserve caution while reducing the risks through innumerable fail-safe devices.

    Academic text (2011)

Antonyms

escalation
65 5.7

A rise in how serious or costly a situation becomes

How Strict

disarmament
  • Specialized
51 5.5
arms control
  • Formal
37 4.3

Surface Forms

arms control singular
arms controls plural

Morphology

arms + control

The meaning 'regulation or limitation of weapons/armed forces' is directly derivable from combining 'arms' (weapons) with 'control' (the ability to direct or regulate). This compositional structure (control of X) is common cross-linguistically and would be accessible to a B1 learner who knows both constituents and basic government/treaty contexts.

Etymology

Arms control comes from the simple idea of actually controlling weapons: arms means 'weapons' and control means to 'limit' or manage them. After big wars, countries began to make agreements to count and reduce weapons, so arms control now means rules or treaties to limit a country's weapons.