大篆

Mandarin · pinyin dà zhuàn

Meanings

  1. the great seal
  2. used narrowly for 籀文
  3. used broadly for many pre-Qin scripts
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Characters in this entry

大
dà · big, great, vast, large, high
篆
zhuàn · seal script; seal, official stamp
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

4–4 · da4 zhuan4

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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.

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 3 senses · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

daai6 syun6

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

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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

noun

  1. large seal script (calligraphic style of Chinese characters)
  2. (alt-of, alternative, name) Alternative name for 籀文 (zhòuwén, “zhouwen (style of calligraphy in use during the Zhou dynasty)”).
  3. any type of pre-Qin script

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

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