四大

Mandarin · pinyin sì dà

Meanings

  1. the four elements: earth, water, fire, and wind (Buddhism)
  2. the four freedoms: speaking out freely, airing views fully, holding great debates, and writing big-character posters, 大鳴大放 dà míng dà fàng, 大辯論 dà biàn lùn, 大字報 dà zì bào (PRC)
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Characters in this entry

四
sì · four
大
dà · big, great, vast, large, high
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Mandarin tones

4–4 · si4 da4

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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.

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 3 senses

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

noun

  1. (Taoism) "Four Greats" (Tao, heaven, earth and man)
  2. (Buddhism) Four महाभूत (mahābhūta) (Great Elements of Buddhism, viz. earth, water, fire and air)
  3. (business, accounting) The four largest global auditing firms, comprising Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG, and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

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

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

四大 · si4 da4
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 23,751
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record四大 四大 [si4 da4] /the four elements: earth, water, fire, and wind (Buddhism)/the four freedoms: speaking out freely, airing views fully, holding great debates, and writing big-character posters, 大鳴大放|大鸣大放[da4 ming2 da4 fang4], 大辯論|大辩论[da4 bian4 lun4], 大字報|大字报[da4 zi4 bao4] (PRC)/