The story
From world war + two. The term was used for a hypothetical future war as early as 1819. It was first applied to the war in 1939-45 in an article in Time, dated September 11, 1939.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
World War II
Today it means: The war from 1939 to 1945 of the Allied forces, including the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, the United States, France, and China, against the Axis Powers, including Germany, Italy, and Japan. Full definition →