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終身大事

简终身大事 · 繁終身大事

Mandarin · pinyin zhōng shēn dà shì

major turning point of lifelong import (esp. marriage)

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Characters in this entry

終: Look up this written character
身: shēn · body; trunk, hull; Kangxi radical 158
大: dà · big, great, vast, large, high
事: shì · affair, matter, business; to serve; accident, incident
终: zhōng · end; finally, in the end

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

1–1–4–4 · zhong1 shen1 da4 shi4

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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.

終身大事 · find source passages ↗ · 终身大事 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 1 sense · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

zung1 san1 daai6 si6

Cantonese word readings for 終身大事. 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.

phrase

(idiomatic) big event in one's life (usually referring to marriage)

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

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