Meaning & use
large-scale projects
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Meanings
nounplural
Big jobs or plans that need a lot of money, workers, or time to finish.
Grammar: Always plural in this form; use 'a large-scale project' for one.
Patterns
- large-scale projects in something
- large-scale projects cost something
- fund large-scale projects
- manage large-scale projects
The city approved several large-scale projects, including a new bridge and a hospital.
Large-scale projects often run over budget because so many people are involved.
She has spent her career managing large-scale projects for engineering companies.
nounpluralformal
Major pieces of research or building work carried out by governments or big organizations.
Grammar: Often used in official or academic writing about public works and research.
Patterns
- government large-scale projects
- large-scale projects in science
- launch large-scale projects
The report compares large-scale projects in energy across five countries.
Universities rely on large-scale projects to attract international funding.
Common combinations
- undertake large-scale projects
- The firm undertakes large-scale projects across Southeast Asia.
- large-scale projects in infrastructure
- Spending on large-scale projects in infrastructure rose last year.
- fund large-scale projects
- Banks are unwilling to fund large-scale projects without government guarantees.
- large-scale projects often stall
- Large-scale projects often stall when the money runs out.
- a series of large-scale projects
- The ministry announced a series of large-scale projects for the next decade.
Synonyms and how they differ
- major projects
- Slightly more general; it stresses importance rather than physical size or budget.
- big undertakings
- More formal and literary; it sounds old-fashioned in everyday business talk.
- megaprojects
- Stronger and more technical; it suggests extremely expensive projects, often over a billion dollars.
Opposites
Word family
- large-scale adjective
- Describing something big in size, range, or number.
- project noun
- A single planned piece of work with a start and an end.
Commonly confused: large-scale projects or big projects? large-scale projects or large projects?
large-scale projects vs big projects
'Big projects' is informal and can mean simply important; 'large-scale projects' emphasizes size, cost, and complexity.
large-scale projects vs large projects
Similar, but 'large-scale' is fixed with a hyphen before the noun and is more common in formal writing.
Practice
Which sentence uses the phrase correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Large-scale projects' is plural, so it needs the plural verb 'take'. Option 0 wrongly uses 'takes', option 1 drops the article 'a', and option 3 mixes 'a' with a plural noun.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “large-scale projects”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.