guerrilla

UK: /gəˈrɪlə/ US: /gəˈrɪlə/ ,(gə ril′ə)

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2026

guer•ril•la or gue•ril•la /gəˈrɪlə/   n. [countable] , pl. -las. 

1. Military a member of a band of unofficial soldiers that attacks an enemy in small groups, often without warning.

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026

guer•ril•la  (gə ril′ə), n. 

1. Military a member of a band of irregular soldiers that uses guerrilla warfare, harassing the enemy by surprise raids, sabotaging communication and supply lines, etc.

adj. 

2. Military pertaining to such fighters or their technique of warfare:
   guerrilla strongholds; guerrilla tactics.

Also, guerilla. 

• Gmc; compare war¹); origin, originally in reference to the Spanish resistance against Napoleon; the name for the struggle erroneously taken as a personal noun, nominal
• Spanish, diminutive of guerra war (
• 1800–10

guer•ril′la•ism, n. 

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

guerrilla, guerilla / ɡəˈrɪlə/ noun

1. a member of an irregular usually politically motivated armed force that combats stronger regular forces, such as the army or police
2. (as modifier): guerrilla warfare
3. a form of vegetative spread in which the advance is from several individual rhizomes or stolons growing rapidly away from the centre, as in some clovers
   Compare phalanx

Etymology: 19th Century: from Spanish, diminutive of guerra war