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counteroffensive
noun
coun·ter·of·fen·sive
ˈkau̇n-tər-ə-ˌfen(t)-siv
: a large-scale military offensive undertaken by a force previously on the defensive
Synonyms
Examples of counteroffensive in a Sentence
They mounted a counteroffensive against the enemy.
the army launched a counteroffensive at dawn
Recent Examples on the Web
The following summer, insurgents again attacked and reached the outskirts of Helmand’s capital; Raziq led counteroffensives to lift sieges there and, the next year, in the neighboring Uruzgan province.
—Matthieu Aikins Victor J. Blue Peter Ganim Krish Seenivasan Steven Szczesniak, New York Times, 22 May 2024
Ukraine has dealt Russia's Black Sea Fleet a number of costly blows in the last year, despite an unsuccessful counteroffensive on the ground.
—Yuliya Talmazan, NBC News, 5 Mar. 2024
Last year’s much-vaunted summer counteroffensive foundered amid muted but pointed mutual recrimination between Ukrainian officials and American backers over battle tactics.
—Laura King, Los Angeles Times, 12 Apr. 2024
Image Image In Ukraine’s south, where hopes of a Ukrainian counteroffensive ended in failure, the front line is only four miles from the town of Huliaipole.
—Emile Ducke Thomas Gibbons-Neff, New York Times, 8 Apr. 2024
In turn, Ukraine launched a series of successful counteroffensives that liberated roughly half the territory Moscow had taken.
—Dominic Tierney, Foreign Affairs, 25 Mar. 2024
In the West, overblown expectations of Kyiv’s imminent success led to widespread disappointment with the Ukrainian counteroffensive, as well as grim prognoses for the war’s future.
—Dominic Tierney, Foreign Affairs, 25 Mar. 2024
In a region that experienced widespread destruction during the invasion, then months of occupation and the Ukrainian counteroffensive, rebuilding depends on foreign cash – and, of course, the course of the war.
—Scott Peterson, The Christian Science Monitor, 4 Mar. 2024
Now leading the country’s military through a faltering counteroffensive is Col. Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of Ukraine’s ground forces.
—Elizabeth Robinson, NBC News, 9 Feb. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'counteroffensive.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
First Known Use
1909, in the meaning defined above
Articles Related to counteroffensive
Dictionary Entries Near counteroffensive
Cite this Entry
“Counteroffensive.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/counteroffensive. Accessed 28 May. 2024.
Kids Definition
counteroffensive
noun
coun·ter·of·fen·sive
ˈkau̇nt-ə-rə-ˌfen(t)-siv
: a large-scale counterattack
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