Meanings
- historicalA military retreat undertaken by the Red Army of the Communist Party of China, the forerunner of the People's Liberation Army, to evade the pursuit of the Kuomintang (KMT or Chinese Nationalist Party) army.
1 more example
The encirclement and the economic blockade proved so effective that the Red Army and Government were forced to adopt the bold strategy of retreat - to escape annihilation by retreating westward, then southward, the northward, and then northeastward, finally reaching their destination in northern Shensi. This retreat has been called "the Long March," which lasted for a whole year and covered about 6,000 miles.
1965 [1950 October], Shih Hu, “China in World Politics: International Communism: Stalin's Grand Strategy”, in The Kuomintang Debacle of 1949: Conquest of Collapse?, D. C. Heath and Company, published 1966, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 55, column 1
Origin
Calque from Chinese 長征 (chángzhēng).
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Chinese Mandarin 長征
- 長征 (chángzhēng)military retreat
Dutch Lange Mars
- Lange Marsmilitary retreat
Finnish pitkä marssi
- pitkä marssimilitary retreat
Hungarian hosszú menetelés
- hosszú menetelésmilitary retreat
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with Long March
All rhymes →Cite this entry
Long March. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Long%20March
“Long March.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Long%20March. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Long March,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Long%20March.
Source: Long March on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.