Warlord

How to spell warlord

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce warlord

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does warlord mean?

1. nounA military commander who exercises power over a region by force, often outside any central government.

Warlord in a sentence

• The documentary traced how one warlord seized control of the northern province.

• Foreign aid was diverted by a local warlord who controlled the roads.

Where does warlord come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Warlord is a transparent English compound, joining the native words 'war' and 'lord'. 'War' descends from Old English and the wider Germanic family, related to a root meaning confusion or strife, while 'lord' comes from the Old English hlafweard, literally 'loaf-ward' or 'keeper of the bread', the head of a household who provided food to his dependants. The compound itself is fairly modern: it surfaces in English in the early nineteenth century, and Tennyson used it poetically before it gained its harder political sense. In the twentieth century it became the standard label for a regional military leader who rules an area by force, especially in fractured states. Because both parts are plain everyday words, the spelling holds no real surprises, though writers sometimes pause over whether it is one word, two words, or hyphenated; the accepted modern form is the single solid word.

How the word is built

• war (armed conflict)
• lord (master, ruler)