hostilities

n. pl.	1.	a legal state created by a declaration of war and ended by official declaration, during which the international rules of war apply. We have showed ourselves generous adversaries . . . and have carried on even our hostilities with humanity. - Atterbury.
	2.	acts of overt warfare.

all-out war, appeal to arms, armed combat, armed conflict, attack, battle, belligerence, belligerency, bloodshed, combat, fighting, hot war, la guerre, might of arms, military operations, open hostilities, open war, resort to arms, shooting war, state of war, the sword, total war, war, warfare, warmaking, warring, wartime