pre-war

• prewar

From pre- + war.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /pɹiːˈwɔː/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /pɹiˈwɔɹ/

• Audio (General American):

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pre-war (not comparable)

1. Before a war.
   1. Before the most recent or significant war in a culture's history.
   2. Before the outbreak of World War I in 1914.
   3. Before the outbreak of World War II in 1939.
      • 1998, Derek Beaven, chapter 9, in Acts of Mutiny, London: Fourth Estate, →ISBN, part 1 (Motion), page 34:

        The hanging-bowl lampshade in marbled glass was two decades pre-war – the kind that marked out aged people.

      1. Especially pre-war architecture: buildings (particularly in and around New York) built between 1900 and about 1940.
      2. Between the end of World War I in 1918 and the outbreak of World War II in 1939; interwar, especially Weimar Republic Germany.

With reference to the World Wars, pre-war (before the outbreak of World War I in 1914) is contrasted with interwar (between the end of World War I in 1918 and the outbreak of World War II in 1939) and post-war (after the end of World War II in 1945), but is also used to refer to some period prior to the outbreak of World War II.

• antebellum

• post-war

• interwar

• “pre-war”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “pre-war, prewar”, in Google Books Ngram Viewer.

• rewrap, warper