Did they call both World Wars, World Wars at the time they occured? Or was it afterwards?

Question

I have just been wondering this lately, because of the situation the world is in now. Will we call this World War III later in history?

Answer 1

No they did not call the wars world wars at the time. During world war I, they called it the "great war"

Answer 2

At the time, World War I was referred to as the Great War, and after the armistace, the War to End All Wars. World War II was simply referred to as 'The War', and not until the historians began writing the books in the late '40's were they called World Wars

Answer 3

The phrases, " World Wars" was coined by the history books in the 1950's. The First World War ( World War I ) was referred to as, The Great War. and The War to End All Wars.
As for World War II, it was the British the actually called in the Second World War. The Americans; fighting 2 different campaigns referred to it as either, European Campaign ( US vs. Germany ) or the Pacific Campaign ( US vs. Japan ).
Russia ( former Soviet Union ) to this day, still refers to it as, " The Great Patriotic War." This is largely do to the fact they suffered the most casualties. ( over 15 million ).

Answer 4

No, I believe they began calling them that after the fact or after there were more countries involved in war efforts than not.

Answer 5

Exactly, during WW I, it was the great war. Once the same countries got into another fight, It became WW II, WW i= the great War