chaebol means A large, family-controlled, South Korean business conglomerate. It carries an Arena rating of 1324, earned across 3 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, chaebol ranks #719 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words, #1,966 of 17,149 for Most Exacting Words, #4,947 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #5,209 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words.
chaebol is pronounced /ˈt͡ʃeɪbʌl/.
Why “chaebol” is a great word
A large, family-controlled industrial and financial conglomerate in South Korea, characterized by immense economic and political influence. The term is from the McCune-Reischauer romanization of Korean *chaebŏl*, from *chae* ("wealth, property") + *bol* ("clan, faction"); a doublet of *zaibatsu*. Unlike *zaibatsu*—which names the historical, dissolved empires of pre-war Japan—or the generic *conglomerate*—which lacks the connotations of dynastic control and intimate state ties—a chaebol is a uniquely Korean fusion of patrimonial capital and national ambition. It is the neon skyline branded with a single family’s name, the identical black sedans flowing from a corporate gate, and the quiet, decisive meeting that charts industrial policy—a modern feudal clan armored in glass and steel, where private wealth becomes a public architecture.
Etymology
From the McCune-Reischauer romanization of Korean 재벌(財閥) (Jaebeol). Doublet of zaibatsu.
noun
- A large, family-controlled, South Korean business conglomerate.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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