"Big Four" meaning in English

See Big Four in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Proper name

Head templates: {{en-proper noun|head=Big Four}} Big Four
  1. (historical) The four top Allied powers of World War I and their leaders: David Lloyd George of Britain, Georges Clemenceau of France, Vittorio Emanuele Orlando of Italy and Woodrow Wilson of the United States, who met at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 at Versailles. Tags: historical Categories (topical): Apple Inc., Four Synonyms: Council of Four, The Four Nations
    Sense id: en-Big_Four-en-name-8t7COTaD Disambiguation of Apple Inc.: 23 6 7 23 17 9 14 Disambiguation of Four: 25 9 9 19 10 10 18 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Wikipedia with redundant first parameter Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 26 7 12 26 9 7 13 Disambiguation of Wikipedia with redundant first parameter: 23 6 9 18 14 9 20
  2. A group of four entrepreneurs who formed the Central Pacific Railroad.
    Sense id: en-Big_Four-en-name-BS0xG7VK
  3. (music) A jazz rhythm derived from the marching band beat. Categories (topical): Music
    Sense id: en-Big_Four-en-name-VO3TgxVu Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 26 7 12 26 9 7 13 Topics: entertainment, lifestyle, music
  4. Any group of four major or largest corporations in a given industry, especially when such a small group has oligopoly or near-oligopoly; as:
    (finance) The four largest banks in any of various countries, or (internationally) the Federal Reserve, People's Bank of China, Bank of Japan, and European Central Bank.
    Categories (topical): Finance, Apple Inc.
    Sense id: en-Big_Four-en-name-rtho7ZKU Disambiguation of Apple Inc.: 23 6 7 23 17 9 14 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Wikipedia with redundant first parameter Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 26 7 12 26 9 7 13 Disambiguation of Wikipedia with redundant first parameter: 23 6 9 18 14 9 20 Topics: business, finance
  5. Any group of four major or largest corporations in a given industry, especially when such a small group has oligopoly or near-oligopoly; as:
    (finance, business, technology) The four largest corporations of Big Tech during the 2000s-2020s, usually defined as Alphabet (f.k.a. Google), Meta (f.k.a. Facebook), Amazon, and Apple.
    Categories (topical): Business, Finance, Technology, Apple Inc.
    Sense id: en-Big_Four-en-name-y-WgvTO- Disambiguation of Apple Inc.: 23 6 7 23 17 9 14 Categories (other): Wikipedia with redundant first parameter Disambiguation of Wikipedia with redundant first parameter: 23 6 9 18 14 9 20 Topics: business, engineering, finance, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, technology
  6. Any group of four major or largest corporations in a given industry, especially when such a small group has oligopoly or near-oligopoly; as:
    (business, accounting) The four largest global auditing firms, comprising Deloitte, Ernst & Young (EY), KPMG, and PwC.
    Categories (topical): Accounting, Business
    Sense id: en-Big_Four-en-name-M5bof8SQ Topics: accounting, business, finance
  7. Any group of four major or largest corporations in a given industry, especially when such a small group has oligopoly or near-oligopoly; as:
    (UK, historical) The four largest railway companies in the United Kingdom in the period 1923–1947: the Great Western Railway (GWR); the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS); the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER); and the Southern Railway (SR).
    Tags: UK, historical Categories (topical): Apple Inc.
    Sense id: en-Big_Four-en-name-uCf~P~r4 Disambiguation of Apple Inc.: 23 6 7 23 17 9 14 Categories (other): British English, English entries with incorrect language header, Wikipedia with redundant first parameter Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 26 7 12 26 9 7 13 Disambiguation of Wikipedia with redundant first parameter: 23 6 9 18 14 9 20
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: Big 4 Related terms: big business Coordinate_terms: Big One, big one, big two, Big Three, big five, big six, big eight

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for Big Four meaning in English (11.2kB)

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      "glosses": [
        "Any group of four major or largest corporations in a given industry, especially when such a small group has oligopoly or near-oligopoly; as:",
        "The four largest corporations of Big Tech during the 2000s-2020s, usually defined as Alphabet (f.k.a. Google), Meta (f.k.a. Facebook), Amazon, and Apple."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "corporations",
          "corporation#English"
        ],
        [
          "industry",
          "industry#English"
        ],
        [
          "oligopoly",
          "oligopoly#English"
        ],
        [
          "finance",
          "finance#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "business",
          "business"
        ],
        [
          "technology",
          "technology"
        ],
        [
          "Big Tech",
          "Big Tech#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "Any group of four major or largest corporations in a given industry, especially when such a small group has oligopoly or near-oligopoly; as:",
        "(finance, business, technology) The four largest corporations of Big Tech during the 2000s-2020s, usually defined as Alphabet (f.k.a. Google), Meta (f.k.a. Facebook), Amazon, and Apple."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "business",
        "engineering",
        "finance",
        "natural-sciences",
        "physical-sciences",
        "technology"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "en:Accounting",
        "en:Business"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2023 November 4, Stephen Foley, Michael O'Dwyer, “Engineer pulls off structural change to lead Big Four firm”, in FT Weekend, page 13",
          "text": "That earned him a professional license he would need if he wanted to rise to the role of US senior partner at PwC, where he leads the Big Four firm's global advisory business and is co-head of its US consulting practice.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Any group of four major or largest corporations in a given industry, especially when such a small group has oligopoly or near-oligopoly; as:",
        "The four largest global auditing firms, comprising Deloitte, Ernst & Young (EY), KPMG, and PwC."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "corporations",
          "corporation#English"
        ],
        [
          "industry",
          "industry#English"
        ],
        [
          "oligopoly",
          "oligopoly#English"
        ],
        [
          "business",
          "business"
        ],
        [
          "accounting",
          "accounting#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "auditing",
          "auditing"
        ],
        [
          "EY",
          "EY"
        ],
        [
          "KPMG",
          "KPMG"
        ],
        [
          "PwC",
          "PwC"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "Any group of four major or largest corporations in a given industry, especially when such a small group has oligopoly or near-oligopoly; as:",
        "(business, accounting) The four largest global auditing firms, comprising Deloitte, Ernst & Young (EY), KPMG, and PwC."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "accounting",
        "business",
        "finance"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "British English",
        "English terms with historical senses",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1951 April, D. S. Barrie, “British Railways: A Survey, 1948-1950”, in Railway Magazine, number 600, pages 223-224",
          "text": "In several respects, the conditions which prevailed when this great venture was begun differed greatly from those in which the \"Big Four\" companies had embarked upon their previous regime in 1923.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Any group of four major or largest corporations in a given industry, especially when such a small group has oligopoly or near-oligopoly; as:",
        "The four largest railway companies in the United Kingdom in the period 1923–1947: the Great Western Railway (GWR); the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS); the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER); and the Southern Railway (SR)."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "corporations",
          "corporation#English"
        ],
        [
          "industry",
          "industry#English"
        ],
        [
          "oligopoly",
          "oligopoly#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "Any group of four major or largest corporations in a given industry, especially when such a small group has oligopoly or near-oligopoly; as:",
        "(UK, historical) The four largest railway companies in the United Kingdom in the period 1923–1947: the Great Western Railway (GWR); the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS); the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER); and the Southern Railway (SR)."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "historical"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "Big 4"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "Big Four"
  ],
  "word": "Big Four"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-30 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (210104c and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.