Chinese word

成千上万

Pronunciation

Pinyinchéng qiān shàng wàn

Meaning

  • idiomthousands upon thousands

Example

成千上万的人涌入商店抢购。chéng qiān shàng wàn de rén yǒng rù shāng diàn qiǎng gòu

Thousands upon thousands of people rushed into the store to buy things.

Illustration for 成千上万 (thousands upon thousands)

More examples

网上有成千上万的评论，真假难辨。wǎng shàng yǒu chéng qiān shàng wàn de píng lùn zhēn jiǎ nán biàn

There are thousands upon thousands of comments online, and it is hard to tell which are true and which are false.

Core concept

So many separate things gathered together that counting them one by one no longer feels useful.

Common phrases

  • 成千上万的人chéng qiān shàng wàn de rén

    thousands upon thousands of people

  • 成千上万的商品chéng qiān shàng wàn de shāng pǐn

    thousands upon thousands of products

Similar words

数不胜数shǔ bú shèng shǔ: Present in such great numbers that no one can count them all.
不计其数bú jì qí shù: Numbering too many to count or calculate.
举不胜举jǔ bú shèng jǔ: Too many examples or cases to mention one by one.

Definition in Chinese

表示数量非常多，多得难以计算或数不清。biǎo shì shù liàng fēi cháng duō duō de nán yǐ jì suàn huò shǔ bù qīng

Word origin

The idiom 成千上万 (chéngqiānshàngwàn, "thousands upon thousands") joins two major number units with the ideas of reaching and going beyond to intensify the sense of scale.

Usage tips

  • This expression gives a rough sense of a very large crowd, so everyday speech uses it for scale rather than an exact count.

Opposites

Word lists with this word