Meaning & use
big bank
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Meanings
nouncountableinformalfinance
A very large bank, especially one of the few that dominate a country's or the world's banking industry.
Grammar: Countable: use 'a big bank' for one, and 'big banks' for several.
Patterns
- a big bank
- the big banks
- one of the big banks
After the merger, the company became one of the big banks in the region.
Small local lenders often struggle to compete with the big banks on fees.
She worked for a big bank in the city before starting her own business.
nouncountableinformalfinance
A bank that has a lot of money, branches, or influence compared with others.
Grammar: Countable and often used with 'a' or in the plural to talk about several such institutions.
Patterns
- a big bank
- big banks
The new regulations were designed to make big banks safer.
He moved from a small credit union to a big bank for a higher salary.
The big banks reported record profits last year.
Word forms
| plural | big banks |
|---|
Common combinations
- one of the big banks
- She used to work for one of the big banks in London.
- big bank profits
- Big bank profits rose sharply after the rate increase.
- a big bank merger
- The big bank merger created the largest lender in the country.
- the big banks
- The government asked the big banks to lend more to small firms.
Synonyms and how they differ
- major bank
- More neutral and formal than 'big bank'; common in news reports and official documents.
- large bank
- A plain, descriptive term used in business writing, without the informal tone of 'big bank'.
- megabank
- Stronger and more informal; suggests a bank of enormous size, often used critically.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: big bank or big bang?
big bank vs big bang
Sounds similar but means a major explosion or the theory about the origin of the universe, not a financial institution.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'big bank' most naturally?
Choose one answer.
In option A, 'big bank' means a large financial institution, which is the usual business meaning. Options B, C, and D use 'bank' in the sense of a riverbank or a raised mound of earth, where 'big' simply describes size and 'big bank' is not a fixed term.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “big bank”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.