Peacekeeping is the work of sending soldiers to a troubled place so that two opposing groups stop fighting and stay apart. In the news you will hear peacekeeping force, peacekeeping mission, and peacekeeping troops — and those phrases name the group of soldiers themselves. That is how the word often appears: not as one person, but as the job, the operation, and the force doing it. A peacekeeping mission is not supposed to be a war of conquest. The soldiers patrol, watch, and try to hold a ceasefire, often under the United Nations. The people doing the work are peacekeepers; what they do is peacekeeping. Though actually news writers blur the two, and peacekeeping on its own can mean both the activity and, loosely, the soldiers. The word follows the older English phrase keep the peace.