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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

It was the first time a majority of young adults in the country had lived with parents since the Great Depression.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jul. 5, 2026

The concept of the American Dream dates back to the founding of the US, but the phrase wasn't popularised until later, in The Epic of America, a book published in 1931 during the Great Depression.

From BBC • Jul. 2, 2026

President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal programs, designed to respond to the Great Depression, had expanded the federal government’s role in the economy and empowered organized labor.

From Salon • Jun. 29, 2026

Lincoln’s collapse four years later cost the government billions and was the largest failure in the S&L crisis, which then was the biggest banking crisis since the Great Depression.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 22, 2026

Experts worried that the world was about to fall into yet another Great Depression.

From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield