Word.ws English Dictionary

Great Satan

Great Satan proper noun: the United States of America, particularly with regard to its perceived imperialist foreign policy.

Proper noun (1)

the Great Satan

  1. (derogatory) The United States of America, particularly with regard to its perceived imperialist foreign policy.
    • Ahmadinejad, facing serious political problems, can posture about standing up to the Great Satan.2007, Alexander Cockburn, “Will they nuke Iran?”, in The Free Press
    • Or, have Muslims been alienated from the Congress because of the Prime Minister's warm embrace of the Great Satan?2007, Swapan Dasgupta, “Muslims aren't the only voters”, in The Pioneer

Proper noun (2) capitalized: great Satan

the great Satan

  1. Alternative letter-case form of Great Satan.

Great Satan meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Arabic

Great Satan in Hindi

pejorative: United States of America
बड़ा शैतान baṛā śaitān

Great Satan in Urdu

pejorative: United States of America
بَڑا شَیطان baṛā śaitān

Great Satan in Bengali

pejorative: United States of America
বড় শয়তান boṛ śoẏotan

Great Satan in Arabic

pejorative: United States of America
اَلشَّيْطان اَلْأَكْبَر aš-šayṭān al-ʔakbar

Forms of Great Satan

alternative formgreat Satan

Origin of Great Satan

Calque of Iranian Persian شَیطانِ بُزُرْگ (šeytân-e bozorg), which is more often the name of the largest of the three jamarat at which stones are thrown during the hajj. The derogatory sense was coined by Supreme Leader of Iran from 1979 to 1989 Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979, one day after the onset of the Iran hostage crisis.

Questions about Great Satan

What does Great Satan mean?
Great Satan means the United States of America, particularly with regard to its perceived imperialist foreign policy.
What is Great Satan in Hindi?
Great Satan in Hindi is बड़ा शैतान (baṛā śaitān). See Great Satan meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is Great Satan?
Great Satan is a proper noun.

Words near Great Satan in the dictionary

  1. Great Sankey
  2. great saphenous vein
  3. great saphenous veins
  4. great sapphirewing
  5. great sapphirewings
  6. Great Satan
  7. Great Schism
  8. great Scot
  9. Great Scotland Yard
  10. great Scott
  11. Great Sea

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Great Satan (page history and authors); great Satan (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “Great Satan.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/great_satan. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.