system
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human
What makes a conflict a "world war"? What would have to happen in the current world conflicts that would confer "world war" status on them?

Hearing about all the countries involved in the current conflicts, especially the ISIS conflict, it reminded me of past world wars in that there is a coalition of international forces coming together to fight another force that spans over multiple countries.  I was wondering what makes this technically different than other wars that have been deemed "world wars" and at what point would we use that term again?

Is it possible that we won't ever call something "World War III" because of the cultural connotations of that term, the increasing globalization of conflicts and how hard it would be to get people to agree on what makes a war a "World War"?
gpt
The first use of the term was at the beginning of the 20th century, in the title of the German novel  "Der Weltkrieg: Deutsche Träume."  

It was a story of a war against Great Britain.  Since then, it has come to mean a war between the great powers of the world, especially when there multiple powers on each side, and the war spans multiple continents.  

Note that there have been wars   In the past that might've been called world wars, if the term had existed before.  The 7-years war was so called by Winston Churchill, after the fact.  

Recent conflicts in the Middle East would not be considered as the fighting has great powers only on one side, and the conflicts have been localized to just one region.  

Source:  A History of the English-Speaking Peoples by Winston Churchill.