daai6 ng5 maa5大五碼大五码
Jyutpingdaai6 ng5 maa5
Yaledaaih ńgh máh
Definition
Big5, a character encoding standard for Traditional Chinese characters widely used in computing.
neutraltechnology
How it's used
Refers specifically to the character encoding standard that dominated the Hong Kong and Taiwan computing landscape for decades. It is now largely superseded by Unicode, but remains a common term when dealing with legacy systems or older text files that display as garbled text. You will mostly hear it in technical or IT contexts rather than casual daily conversation.
Examples
This file is saved using Big-5 encoding.
Has your computer been able to open the Big-5 document yet?
Related words
Common mistake
Do not confuse this with the term 繁體字, which refers to the characters themselves rather than the digital encoding standard. Using it to describe a font or a writing style is incorrect.
Grammar color guide
Noun
Verb
Adjective
Adverb
Pronoun
Classifier
Particle
Connector
Grammar guides
- In 30 secondsThe whole language at a glance. No tenses, no plurals, six tones, sentence particles. Read this before you dive into any specific topic.
- ParticlesSentence particles add tone, emotion, and nuance. Learn the most common particles in Cantonese and how to use them.
- Possession (嘅)How to say my, your, and his, and how to link a describing word to a noun, all with the little word 嘅 (ge3).
