大战 (dà zhàn) — large-scale war or battle; fierce competition (figurative)

Definition

大战 (dàzhàn) literally means 'great battle' and is used for both real large-scale wars (世界大战) and figurative fierce contests (价格大战 'price war'). It is a noun, not a verb — use 打仗 or 作战 for the verb 'to fight a war'.

noun
large-scale war or battlefierce competition (figurative)
Measure word ·

Examples

  • 大战
    Dì èr cì shì jiè dà zhàn shì rén lèi lì shǐ shàng guī mó zuì dà de dà zhàn zhī yī.
    World War II was one of the largest-scale wars in human history.
  • 大战
    Liǎng jiā gōng sī wèi le shì chǎng fèn é zhǎn kāi le yì chǎng jià gé dà zhàn.
    The two companies launched a price war over market share.
  • 大战
    Zhè chǎng zú qiú dà zhàn xī yǐn le quán qiú shù yì guān zhòng.
    This football battle attracted hundreds of millions of viewers worldwide.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

zhànbattle

大 means big and 战 means battle, giving a large-scale war or fierce clash.

Characters in this word

A drawing of the thing itself, worn down over three thousand years into a few strokes.

The form 大 is a picture of a person standing and facing forward, not of someone stretching their arms.

Open 大 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
Sound part声符shēngfú
zhànzhàn
Same sound today

战 pairs 占, which gives its sound, with 戈, a weapon.

Open 战 →

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