The Cold War
Etymology
The phrase “cold war” was popularized by George Orwell in a 1945 essay and applied to US–Soviet tensions by the financier Bernard Baruch in 1947. “Cold” stands in contrast to a “hot,” or shooting, war: the two superpowers armed against each other for decades but never fought directly.
noun · /kohld wor/
The decades-long standoff after 1945 between the US-led West and the Soviet-led East, waged through proxies, arms races, and ideology rather than direct combat.
What it names
The template for great-power rivalry short of open war — invoked whenever tension, espionage, and influence contests replace actual fighting.
Example
Analysts warn that a new Cold War is taking shape, this time over chips and data.
Related idea
It relates to détente, the periodic easing of tension within the Cold War, and to glasnost, the late-Soviet openness that helped bring it to an end.