大爺

简 大爷 · 繁 大爺
Mandarin · pinyin dà yé#

Meanings · dà yé

  1. arrogant idler
  2. self-centered show-off
Mandarin · pinyin dà ye#

Meanings · dà ye

  1. (coll.) father's older brother
  2. uncle
  3. term of respect for older man
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Characters in this entry

大
dà · big, great, vast, large, high
爺
Look up this written character
爷
yé · father, grandfather
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

4–2 · da4 ye2

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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.

大爺 · find source passages ↗ · 大爷 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Rime · Wiktionary

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

daai6 je4

Cantonese word readings for 大爺. 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. insolent person; arrogant person
  2. (archaic) patrician; nobleman
  3. (dated) a term of address by a servant for his or her young master who is the eldest sibling

noun

  1. (chiefly Northern China, colloquial) paternal uncle (father's elder brother)
  2. (polite) old man

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

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

大爺 · da4 ye2 · da4 ye5
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source lines 28,219, 28,220
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source records大爺 大爷 [da4 ye2] /arrogant idler/self-centered show-off/大爺 大爷 [da4 ye5] /(coll.) father's older brother/uncle/term of respect for older man/