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大

Cantonese · source Jyutpingdaai3#

Meanings · daai3

  1. big
  2. huge
  3. large
  4. major
  5. great
  6. wide
  7. deep
  8. older (than)
  9. oldest
  10. eldest
  11. greatly
  12. very much
  13. (dialect) father
  14. father's elder or younger brother
  15. full-grown
  16. adult
  17. a penny
  18. a surname
  19. honored
  20. esteemed
  21. important
  22. generally
  23. futher ahead or behind (in terms of dates)
  24. completely
  25. pompously
  26. to intimidate
  27. to challenge
  28. senior
  29. older of the rank of leader
  30. boss in a triad gang
  31. to raise (in gambling games)
Cantonese · source Jyutpingtaai3#

Meanings · taai3

  1. an alternative form for the word太, too
About these definitions

Source definition segments, in their original order. Characters a definition cites are shown without their Mandarin pinyin; classifier lists that CC-Canto copied from CC-CEDICT are marked Mandarin. The community dictionary is not independently verified by zimai.

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Reading & tones

Schematic citation-tone diagrams from the source numbers. These are not recordings or predictions of connected speech.

Tone difference from Unihan

  • 大 is read daai3 here; Unihan’s citation reading is daai6. Same syllable, different tone across these source readings. CC-Canto also lists 大 daai3 as its own entry.

Computed by zimai: each syllable of the CC-Canto word reading is compared with Unihan 17.0.0 kCantonese for its character. The comparison does not say why a reading differs (a changed tone, 變音, a reading tied to one meaning, or a source variant).

Same syllable, six tones

daaidaai1—歹daai2bad带daai3banddaai4—daai5—大daai6

Characters whose customary Unihan reading (kCantonese) is this syllable in each tone, chosen as in the tone atlas (2013 standard level, then the number of CC-CEDICT words they form), with CC-Canto 2017's meaning for that reading; a dash means no catalogue character has that reading. Checked syllables (-p, -t, -k) normally carry tones 1, 3 and 6. Character readings, not word readings; no frequency implied.

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Written characters

大

Both source spellings are represented. Written membership is not an etymological or semantic claim.

Cantonese entries with 大 ↗

Cantonese characters and the Mandarin bridge ↗

Mandarin comparison · separate source entries

CC-CEDICT, the Mandarin–English dictionary, lists the same written form:

  • 大 dà CC-CEDICT · Mandarinbig; large; great; older (than another person); eldest (as in 大姐 dà jiě); greatly; freely; fully; (dialect) father; (dialect) uncle (father's brother)
  • 大 dài CC-CEDICT · Mandarinsee 大夫 dài fu

A separate source entry, shown for comparison. The same characters can carry different senses in Mandarin and in Cantonese; zimai does not align these senses.

CC-Canto includes this pinyin reference: da4. It does not establish a Mandarin word with the same meaning.

Look up this spelling in the Mandarin dictionary ↗
Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 25 senses · 2 Cantonese readings

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

daai6 · taai3

Cantonese word readings for 大. 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.

character

  1. of great size; big; large; huge
  2. big; great
  3. great of its kind
  4. in an extreme manner; greatly
  5. main; major
  6. well-known; successful (only applied to some occupations)
  7. mature; grown up
  8. (of a place) greater (together with the surrounding area pertaining to it)
  9. (Cantonese) to grow up
  10. (Cantonese) to be older than
  11. (dialectal) father
  12. (dialectal) father's elder or younger brother
  13. (Cantonese, slang) to intimidate; to threaten
  14. (Cantonese) only so big
  15. (Cantonese, euphemistic) number two
  16. (abbreviation, alt-of) short for 大學／大学 (dàxué, “university”) Used only in the abbreviation of the name.
  17. 45th tetragram of the Taixuanjing; "greatness" (𝌲)
  18. a surname

character

  1. used in 大夫 (dàifu, “doctor”)
  2. used in 大王 (dàiwáng, “(in operas, old novels, etc.) king; ringleader”)
  3. used in 大黃／大黄 (dàihuáng, “rhubarb”)
  4. used in 大城 (Dàichéng, “Daicheng, Hebei”)
  5. (alt-of, alternative) alternative form of 待 (“to be about to; to intend to”)
  6. (alt-of, alternative) alternative form of 代 (dài, “dynasty”)

character

  1. (Cantonese) small

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

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

CC-Canto · Pleco Inc. · edition 2017-02-02
Source lines 27,155, 27,156 · Original publisher · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Edition & transformations

Original source comment: adapted from cc-cedict

Original source comment: adapted from cc-cedict

Mandarin comparison: CC-CEDICT 2026-10-13, CC BY-SA 4.0. Source reading differences and six-tone sets: computed by zimai from Unihan 17.0.0 (Unicode License V3).

Exact source records & identity大 大 [da4] {daai3} /big/huge/large/major/great/wide/deep/older (than)/oldest/eldest/greatly/very much/(dialect) father/father's elder or younger brother/full-grown/adult/a penny/a surname/honored/esteemed/important/generally/futher ahead or behind (in terms of dates)/completely/pompously/to intimidate/to challenge/senior / older of the rank of leader / boss in a triad gang/to raise (in gambling games)/ # adapted from cc-cedict

SHA-256: 6fb3a3c1a9d990619ba9b30c5496e44a40e01b612d999fcbbaacbaa50d711bbd

大 大 [da4] {taai3} /an alternative form for the word太, too/ # adapted from cc-cedict

SHA-256: f1f30ed8d901e5157da8a18ca1ea85be797ad8956e6d33d84ee0fb5d39c14a60