Proper noun
(Canada, US, obsolete, 1910s) Former name of WWI / World War One / First World War / The Great War.
(1940s-onwards) The European theatre of World War II / WW2 / Second World War
Source: en.wiktionary.orgIf I can just see the European war out I think I might feel justified in quitting the war. Ernie Pyle
It was quite a European war until 1917, when the Americans joined up. They don't have the same sense of the loss of innocence and the cataclysmic loss of life. A whole generation was wiped out. Tom Hiddleston
If our social skills (that is, our ability to secure co-operation between people) had advanced step by step with our technical skills, there would not have been another European War. Elton Mayo