great wall of china
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.73 in modern English
28
Scrabble Score
16
Letters
3
Syllables
13
Unique Chars
Meaning
name
An ancient Chinese fortification, almost 4,000 miles long, originally designed to protect China from the Mongols.
Example Sentences
- "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, weſtward, to the Baykail ſea ; where they border with the territories of the Kontayſha, or prince of the black Kalmucks. On the ſouth, they are bounded by a nation called Tonguts, among whom the Delay Lama has his residence."
- "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."
- "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. The Kiayu-kuan, or "Jade Gate," by which it is here intersected, was originally so called from the fact that it led into the Khotan country, whence the Chinese traders brought back the precious mineral."
- "Abramovic and Ulay lived like nomads for many years, traveling to exotic locations. After 12 years, the eccentric artists broke up. 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."
- "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."
- "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."
Etymology
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.
Inflected Forms
the Great Wall of China (canonical)