Word.ws English Dictionary

Great Wall of China

Great Wall of China proper noun: an ancient Chinese fortification, almost 4,000 miles long, originally designed to protect China from the Mongols.

great wall of china: an ancient Chinese fortification, almost 4,000 miles long, originally designed to protect China...
Image: Velatrix, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Proper noun

the Great Wall of China

  1. An ancient Chinese fortification, almost 4,000 miles long, originally designed to protect China from the Mongols.
    • Of the Mongall Tartars.
      The Mongalls are a numerous people, and occupy a large extent of country, from this place to the Kallgan, which ſignifies the everlaſting Wall, or the great wall of China. From this wall they ſtretch themſelves northward as far as the river Amoor; and from the Amoor...1767, Annual register, or a view of the history and politics and literature for the year, page 38, column 2
    • The Mongalls are a numerous people, and occupy a large extent of country, from this place to the Kallgan, which ſignines the everlaſting Wall, or the great wall of China.1796, The Annual Register, or, a view of the History, Politicks, and Literature for the Year 1767, 5th edition, London: J. Dodsley, page 38

Great Wall of China meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Sanskrit and Arabic

Great Wall of China in Hindi

Chinese fortification
चीन की महान दीवार cīn kī mahān dīvār, चीन की महाप्राचीर cīn kī mahāprācīr

Great Wall of China in Tamil

Chinese fortification
சீனப்பெருஞ்சுவர் cīṉapperuñcuvar

Great Wall of China in Sanskrit

Chinese fortification
चीनस्य महाभित्तिः cīnasya mahābhittiḥ, अयुतक्रोशदीर्घप्राकार ayutakrośadīrghaprākāra

Great Wall of China in Arabic

Chinese fortification
سُور اَلصِّين اَلْعَظِيم sūr aṣ-ṣīn al-ʕaẓīm
More languagesFewer languages
Great Wall of China in Indonesian
Tembok Besar Tiongkok
Great Wall of China in Thai
กำแพงเมืองจีน gam-pɛɛng mʉʉang-jiin
Great Wall of China in Vietnamese
Vạn Lí Trường Thành, Vạn Lý Trường Thành, Trường Thành
Great Wall of China in Myanmar
တရုတ်ပြည်မှ မဟာရံတံတိုင်းကြီး ta.rutpranyhma. ma.haramtamtuing:kri:
Dhivehi
ޗައިނާގެ ބޮޑު ފާރު caināge boḍu fāru

Examples of Great Wall of China in a sentence

  • Near that same fortieth parallel of latitude on which our Asiatic journey was begun and ended, we now struck, at its extreme western limit, the Great Wall of China.1894, Thomas Gaskell Allen, Jr.; William Lewis Sachtleben, “Over the Gobi Desert and through the Western Gate of the Great Wall”, in Across...
  • The marriage performance they'd planned, during which they were to run 2,500 kilometers towards each other along the Great Wall of China and then marry, turned into a break-up event.2016 November 30, Nadine Wojcik, “Blood and pain: Extreme performance artist Marina Abramovic turns 70”, in Deutsche Welle, archived from...
  • A northern section of the Great Wall of China collapsed after a period of heavy rain last month, with many blaming poor-quality renovations for the deterioration of the iconic landmark.2018 August 2, Christina Zhao, “Great Wall of China Collapse: Poor Renovation Works And Heavy Rainfall Blamed”, in Newsweek, archived from...
  • Backhoes moved house by house, laying waste to a community called Xitai that was built in a plush green valley on the northern edge of Beijing, only a short walk from the Great Wall of China.2020 August 7, Steven Lee Myers, Keith Bradsher, “Beijing Launches Another Demolition Drive, This Time in Its Bucolic Suburbs”, in The New...

Origin of Great Wall of China

First used by Daniel Defoe on page 29 of his pamphlet The Advantages of peace and commerce: with some remarks on the East-India trade (1729); attested but not much in currency until the early 1900s, when it supplanted the Chinese wall (not to be confused with the later jargon term Chinese Wall), perhaps in response to or as part of exaggerated accounts of the wall's size and construction.

Words formed from Great Wall of China

Questions about Great Wall of China

What does Great Wall of China mean?
Great Wall of China means an ancient Chinese fortification, almost 4,000 miles long, originally designed to protect China from the Mongols.
What is Great Wall of China in Hindi?
Great Wall of China in Hindi is चीन की महान दीवार (cīn kī mahān dīvār), चीन की महाप्राचीर (cīn kī mahāprācīr). See Great Wall of China meaning in Hindi.
How do you use Great Wall of China in a sentence?
Near that same fortieth parallel of latitude on which our Asiatic journey was begun and ended, we now struck, at its extreme western limit, the Great Wall of China.
What part of speech is Great Wall of China?
Great Wall of China is a proper noun.

Words near Great Wall of China in the dictionary

  1. great vessels
  2. Great Vowel Shift
  3. Great Wagon
  4. Great Wakering
  5. great wall
  6. Great Wall of China
  7. Great Wall of Sand
  8. great walls
  9. Great Waltham
  10. Great War
  11. Great Wealth Transfer

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Great Wall of China (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Great Wall of China.wav.

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