What it means
جنگ (jang) means war, that is, organized armed conflict between states, armies, or large groups. The word is attested in Middle Persian (Pahlavi) and is considered a native Persian term, not a borrowing. In everyday speech it also stretches to mean fight or conflict in a looser sense, so two people arguing loudly might be described as in a jang. A formal synonym for interstate war is نبرد (nabard), which sounds more literary and military. The direct antonym is صلح (solh, peace). The phrase جنگ داخلی (jang-e dâkheli) means civil war, and جنگ سرد (jang-e sard) means cold war, both calques from Western political vocabulary.
How to use it
- جنگ خسارت زیادی به بار آورد. (jang khasârat-e ziâdi be bâr âvard.) “The war caused tremendous damage.”
- اونا از جنگ فرار کردن. (oonâ az jang farâr kardan.) “They fled from the war.”
- جنگ هشت ساله خیلی آدم کشت. (jang-e hasht sâle kheyli âdam kosht.) “The eight-year war killed many people.”
- امیدوارم دیگه جنگی نباشه. (omidvâram dige jangi nabâshe.) “I hope there will be no more war.”
Cultural note
For Iranians, the word jang is inseparable from the Iran-Iraq War of 1980 to 1988, known in Persian as جنگ تحمیلی (jang-e tahmili, the imposed war) or دفاع مقدس (defâ-e moqaddas, the sacred defense), the latter term preferred in official discourse. That conflict, which cost hundreds of thousands of Iranian lives, left a deep mark on national memory and appears constantly in literature, cinema, and public commemoration. The phrase جنگ نمیخوایم (jang nemikhaym, we do not want war) recurs in popular speech as an expression of war fatigue rather than any specific political position.