喜樂美語
  1. 1n/ˌθɜːrd ˈwɜːrld/ · /ˌθɜːd ˈwɜːld/第三世界

    The poorer countries of the world that have little industry, mostly in Africa, in parts of Asia, and in parts of Central and South America. The sources say the phrase can cause offence, and that people now usually say 'developing countries' instead.

    這個說法幾乎都要加 the：the Third World。它也常直接放在名詞前面。例如 Third World countries、Third World debt。大小寫兩種寫法都有人用。小寫的 third world 也是同一個詞。真正要記住的是它身上的標記。這個說法可能冒犯到人。現在一般改說 developing countries。這一群國家也可以稱作 the South。這個意思同樣標為「有時帶貶義」。所以讀舊書、舊新聞時你會遇到它，看得懂很重要。但自己要寫的時候，多數人會換一個說法。

    示範例句 · Example

    Our textbook still says 'the Third World', but our teacher asks us to write 'developing countries'.

    中文翻譯我們的課本仍然寫著「第三世界」，但是我們的老師要求我們寫「發展中國家」。

    The phrase almost always takes 'the': 'the Third World'. It is also used in front of another noun, as in 'Third World countries' and 'Third World debt'. Both spellings appear — capital letters and small letters — and the small-letter form counts as the same term. What matters most for a reader today is the label on it. The phrase can cause offence, and 'developing countries' is now the usual choice; this part of the world can also be called 'the South'. The same sense is marked as sometimes derogatory. So you will still meet the phrase in older books and news, and you should be able to read it, but writers who want to be careful reach for another term.

    常見搭配

    • Third World countries

      第三世界國家

      poorer countries with little industry

      The book compares schools in Third World countries with schools in Europe.

    • in the Third World

      在第三世界

      in those poorer parts of the world

      Many of the group's projects are in the Third World.

    • Third World debt

      第三世界債務

      the money poorer countries owe to richer countries and banks

      The conference was about cancelling Third World debt.

    意思相近

    developing countriesthe developing worldthe South

    用法接近

    First Worlddeveloping countrylow-income country

    意思相反

    the First Worldthe developed worldindustrialized countries

core核心畫面

You can think of this phrase as a line drawn on a map by someone standing on one side of it. The world gets sorted into a first group, a second group, and then a third: everything left over, named by its number rather than by itself. Everything the phrase does now comes from that leftover position — being the third group can mean staying out of a fight, or being the poorest part of the list, or simply being what an angry speaker points at to mean 'the bottom'. The label was never chosen by the people inside it, which is why both sources warn that it can land badly.

可以想成：這個說法像是一條線，由站在線這一邊的人畫下去的。世界被排成第一群、第二群，然後是第三群——剩下的那些，用一個編號被帶過，而不是用自己的名字。它後來的每個用法，都從「被排在第三」這個位置長出來。被排在第三，可以是不加入哪一邊的爭鬥，可以是名單上最窮的那一段，也可以只是有人在生氣時隨手指的「最底層」。這個標籤從來不是被指稱的人自己選的。這也是為什麼兩份來源都提醒：這個詞可能傷到人。

容易混在一起的字在訂閱裡。容易混在一起的字需要訂閱帳號。

同家族的字

意思相近

developing countriesthe developing worldthe South

用法接近

First Worlddeveloping countrylow-income country

意思相反

the First Worldthe developed worldindustrialized countries