guerrilla

• guerilla (misspelling)

Borrowed from Spanish guerrilla, diminutive of guerra (“war”), coined during the Peninsular War.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɡəˈɹɪlə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ɡəˈɹɪlə/, /ɡəˈɹiə/, /ˌɡeɪˈɹiə/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Homophone: gorilla
• Hyphenation: guer‧ril‧la

guerrilla (plural guerrillas)

1. A soldier in a small independent group, fighting against the government or regular forces by surprise raids.

   The right-wing paramilitary's offensive against the Marxist guerrillas failed because they did not know the terrain well enough.

2. (now rare) A non-official war carried out by small independent groups; a guerrilla war.

guerrilla (comparative more guerrilla, superlative most guerrilla)

1. (military) Relating to, using, or typical of guerrilla warfare, or its principles of small independent or non-official perpetrators.
   • 1908, George Devereux Oswell, chapter VII, in Sketches of Rulers of India, volume I, page 127:

     Wherever Nicholson was most wanted, there he was sure to be found. What his life was at this time may be seen from a letter he wrote to his mother: 'I am leading a very guerrilla sort of life with seven hundred horse and foot raised among the people of the country. The chieftain who is in rebellion has eight regular regiments and sixteen guns, so that I am unable to meet them openly in the field.'

   • 1963, Samuel B. Griffith (translator), Mao Zedong, The Red Book of Guerrilla Warfare, edited by Shawn Conners, →ISBN, published 2010, page 14, original 1937

     On the other hand, after the fall of Feng Ling Tu, the operations of Central Shansi, and Suiyuan, troops were more guerrilla than orthodox in nature.

   • 1976, Walter Laqueur, Guerrilla Warfare, page 205:

     The Slovak uprising in the latter days was not guerrilla in character, which, incidentally, may have been one of the reasons for its failure.

2. (marketing) Relating to, using, or typical of guerrilla marketing.
   • 1989, Michael Wiese, Film & video marketing, page 445:

     We took a very guerrilla approach to marketing Goin' Hollywood, in keeping with the irreverent tone of the game.

   • 2005 February 28, “Firefox Continues To Chip Away At IE's Share”, in InformationWeek:

     "Mozilla's marketing has been very guerrilla. You're not seeing it spend millions of dollars on TV. Instead, it's a powerful ground swell.

   • 2010 February 26, “A serious woman”, in The Times:

     My style is more guerrilla. I grew up in a village, a very suppressed environment. I was like one of those young kids who hated the whole conventional way of doing things. So when I started to make films it was very hand-made, very fast.

3. Using unconventional, non-traditional, non-mainstream and often subversive practices to achieve something.

   guerrilla marketing

   guerrilla tourism

   guerrilla gardening

   • 1976 April 3, “April 8 Set for 'Grand Jury Three' Protest March”, in Gay Community News, page 8:

     The Boston demonstration, which will feature singing and guerrilla theatre, will begin at 12 noon in front of the Park Street Subway station.

   • 2022, Marisol Cortez, “Ambivalent Anality: Revisiting the Queer Ecology of "the Jackass Moment"”, in Media+Environment:

     Jackass’s guerrilla, nonnarrative format

Borrowed from Spanish guerrilla.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [ɡəˈri.ʎə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ɡeˈri.ʎa]
• Hyphenation: gue‧ri‧lla

guerrilla f (plural guerrilles)

1. guerrilla (small official or unofficial military troop)
   • 2014, Llorenç Capellà i Fornés, El carro de Selene:

     Acabava d'esventrar un ànec i vaig recuperar, entre les vísceres, la Marianne que li havia lliurat abans d'incorporar-se a la guerrilla.

     I just eviscerated a duck and recovered, among the guts, the Marianne medallion which they'd delivered to him before incorporating him into the guerrilla unit.

2. guerrilla war

• guerriller

• guerra
• guerrer

• “guerrilla” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “guerrilla”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
• “guerrilla” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “guerrilla” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Borrowed from Spanish guerrilla.

• IPA^(key): /ɡəˈril.jaː/, /ˌɡeːˈril.jaː/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: guer‧ril‧la

guerrilla f (plural guerrilla's)

1. a guerrilla war; guerrilla warfare [from 1810s]

   Synonym: guerrillaoorlog

2. a guerrilla fighter

   Synonyms: guerrillastrijder, guerrillero

• → Indonesian: gerilya

Borrowed from Spanish guerrilla.

• Rhymes: -iɟa

guerrilla f (plural guerrillas)

1. guerrilla (small official or unofficial military troop)
2. guerrilla war

• “guerrilla”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, 2012–2024

From guerra (“war”) +‎ -illa (diminutive suffix).

• Audio (Venezuela):

  (file)

• Syllabification: gue‧rri‧lla

guerrilla f (plural guerrillas)

1. guerrilla (small official or unofficial military troop)
2. guerrilla war

• → Catalan: guerrilla
• → English: guerrilla, guerilla
• → French: guérilla
  • → Turkish: gerilla
• → Galician: guerrilla
• → Italian: guerriglia
• → Piedmontese: guerija
• → Portuguese: guerrilha

• “guerrilla”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2023 November 28