Meaning

6 senses

  1. Someone or something that is large in stature.

  2. An important or powerful person; a celebrity; a big name.

  3. (in the plural)The big leagues, big time.

  4. An initiated member of a sorority or fraternity who acts as a mentor to a new member (the little).

  5. The participant in age roleplay who acts out the older role.

  6. (Northern England, Scotland, UK, archaic, dialectal, uncountable)One or more kinds of barley, especially six-rowed barley.

Examples

5873 sentences

  1. It was a very big room.

    Це була дуже велика кімната. — deniko

    ruЭто была очень большая комната. — sharptoothed

    deEs war ein sehr großes Zimmer. — Zaghawa

    CK · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · A1Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  2. What is that big new building?

    Що це за велика нова будівля? — deniko

    ruЧто это за большое новое здание? — odexed

    deWas ist das für ein großes neues Gebäude? — Tamy

    CK · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · A1Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  3. Here's a big map of Germany.

    Це велика карта Німеччини. — brambury

    ruВот большая карта Германии. — Tonari

    deHier ist eine große Deutschlandkarte. — MUIRIEL

    CK · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · A1Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  4. We live near a big library.

    Ми живемо поруч із великою бібліотекою. — deniko

    ruМы живём рядом с большой библиотекой. — Biga

    deWir wohnen in der Nähe einer großen Bibliothek. — Pfirsichbaeumchen

    CK · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · A1Open on TatoebaReport a problem

  5. We live in a big city.

    Ми живемо у великому місті. — deniko

    ruМы живём в большом городе. — marafon

    deWir leben in der Großstadt. — Pfirsichbaeumchen

    CK · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · A1Open on TatoebaReport a problem

Origin

Inherited from Northern Middle English big, bigge (“powerful, strong”), possibly from a di

Inherited from Northern Middle English big, bigge (“powerful, strong”), possibly from a dialect of Old Norse. Ultimately perhaps a derivative of Proto-Germanic *bugja- (“swollen up, thick”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰew-, *bu- (“to swell”), in which case big would be related to bogey, bugbear, and bug.

From Middle English byge, from Old Norse bygg (“barley, probably Hordeum vulgare, common barley”), from Proto-Germanic *bewwuz (“crop, barley”). Cognate with Old English bēow (“barley”).

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

plural: bigs

Synonyms

2 synonyms
big shotbig leagues

Antonyms

1 antonyms
littleA1

Collocations

12 patterns
  • was a big
  • a big mistake
  • a big deal
  • have a big
  • big deal
  • big mistake
  • made a big
  • such a big
  • big problem
  • a big problem
  • is too big
  • in a big

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
biennialbierbifocalsbifurcationbigamybigfootbigger

Dictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.

big — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto