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Great Leap Forward

British  

noun

  1. the attempt by the People's Republic of China in 1959–60 to solve the country's economic problems by labour-intensive industrialization

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

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His relentless pursuit of steel production at the expense of farm work during the Great Leap Forward contributed to a famine, causing as many as tens of millions of deaths.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 23, 2025

The Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution - campaigns led by Communist China's founder to reshape the nation's economy and society - resulted in millions of deaths.

From BBC • Oct. 19, 2025

Which world leader’s Great Leap Forward campaign, intended to increase food production, instead resulted in the starvation of millions?

From Slate • Oct. 4, 2023

Though it is a work of fiction, it is based on her experiences living in a village in 1960 during the Great Leap Forward.

From New York Times • Jan. 13, 2023

If this scenario is correct, then Australia/New Guinea gained a massive head start that might have continued to propel human development there long after the Great Leap Forward.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

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