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• Great Depression
  Great Depression

  noun

  the economic crisis and period of low business activity in the U.S. and other countries, roughly beginning with the stock-market crash in October, 1929, and continuing through most of the 1930s.
• Depression, Great
  Depression, Great

  The great slowdown in the American economy, the worst in the country's history, which began in 1929 and lasted until the early 1940s. Many banks and businesses failed, and millions of people lost their jobs. (See Dust Bowl; fireside chats; Hoovervilles; New Deal; Okies; Franklin D. Roosevelt; and stock market Crash of 1929.)

Great Depression

American  

noun

1. the economic crisis and period of low business activity in the U.S. and other countries, roughly beginning with the stock-market crash in October, 1929, and continuing through most of the 1930s.

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Depression, Great Cultural  

1. The great slowdown in the American economy, the worst in the country's history, which began in 1929 and lasted until the early 1940s. Many banks and businesses failed, and millions of people lost their jobs. (See Dust Bowl; fireside chats; Hoovervilles; New Deal; Okies; Franklin D. Roosevelt; and stock market Crash of 1929.)

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Usage

When and what was the Great Depression? The Great Depression was a worldwide economic crisis that lasted for much of the 1930s. It heavily impacted the United States, where millions of people faced unemployment, homelessness, and poverty. In economics, a depression is a period during which business, employment, and stock market values fall to very low levels for a significant amount of time (typically more than three years). The Great in Great Depression refers to the fact that it was the worst depression in U. S. history. The start of the Great Depression is often cited as the U. S. stock market crash of 1929, but its causes are complex. Its effects were also complex and widespread and are still discussed. Some can even be seen today in the form of government programs and agencies created to address the crisis at the time.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Great Depression

The profe has had to update his lectures about the forced removal of upward of a million Mexican Americans south of the border during the Great Depression.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026

Take the top of the bull market in October 2007, just prior to the global financial crisis, the worst bear market since the Great Depression.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 20, 2026

The family-owned Pink’s opened as a push cart in 1939, selling 10-cent dogs during the Great Depression.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026

The entity would operate like the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, a self-regulatory body established during the Great Depression that oversees brokerage firms and is funded by the sector, he said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026

The Great Depression had wiped out many Osage fortunes that had already been diminished by guardians and thieves.

From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann