四聲

简 四声 · 繁 四聲
Mandarin · pinyin sì shēng

Meanings

  1. the four tones of Middle Chinese: level tone 平聲, rising tone 上聲, departing tone 去聲 and entering tone 入聲
  2. the four tones of Modern Standard Mandarin
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Characters in this entry

四
sì · four
聲
shēng · sound, voice, noise; tone; music
声
shēng · sound, voice, noise; tone; music
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

4–1 · si4 sheng1

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Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

四聲 · find source passages ↗ · 四声 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 3 senses · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

sei3 sing1

Cantonese word readings for 四聲. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

CanCLID contributors · CC BY 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

noun

  1. (Chinese phonetics, poetry) the four tones of Middle Chinese (traditional tone classes also used for modern varieties of Chinese)
  2. (linguistics) the four tones of Modern Standard Chinese (Mandarin)
  3. fourth tone; alternative name for 去聲/去声 (qùshēng, “departing tone”).

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

四聲 · si4 sheng1
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 23,841
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record四聲 四声 [si4 sheng1] /the four tones of Middle Chinese: level tone 平聲|平声, rising tone 上聲|上声, departing tone 去聲|去声 and entering tone 入聲|入声/the four tones of Modern Standard Mandarin/