noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   the five fundamental elements or phases of processes in traditional East Asian cosmology, consisting of fire, water, wood, metal, and earth uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms

five elementsfive phases

Etymology

Borrowed from the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of Mandarin 五行 (wǔxíng).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.