English Explanatory Dictionary

Chinese

English dictionary entry

Meanings

adj
  1. Of, from, or related to China, particularly now the People's Republic of China.
  2. Of, from, or related to the people of China, particularly the Han Chinese and their culture whether in China or overseas.
  3. Of, from, or related to a language native to Han Chinese persons, often used generally of Chinese characters or particularly to refer to Standard Mandarin.
  4. As exotic, unusual, backwards, or unorganized as someone or something from China.
  5. Used with a noun to indicate a referent different from, and seemingly more exotic or unusual than, the base noun's referent.
  6. Having barn doors with a horizontal orientation.
name
  1. The citizens of China, particularly citizens of the People's Republic of China.
  2. The Han Chinese, whether in China or overseas.
  3. The Standard Chinese language, written in Chinese characters and spoken and spelled using Standard Mandarin pronunciation.
  4. The branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family including Mandarin, Cantonese, Shanghainese, Southern Min, and other closely related language varieties and dialects.
  5. The logographic writing system shared by most Sinitic languages.
noun
  1. A person from China or of Chinese descent.
  2. Ellipsis of Chinese cuisine.
  3. Ellipsis of Chinese meal (“meal consisting of Chinese cuisine”).
  4. Ellipsis of Chinese restaurant (“restaurant serving Chinese cuisine”).

Pronunciation

/t͡ʃaɪˈniːz/ /ˈt͡ʃaɪniːz/ /ˌt͡ʃaɪˈniz/ /ˈt͡ʃaɪˌniz/ /ˌt͡ʃʌɪˈniz/ /ˈt͡ʃʌɪˌniz/ [(ˌ)t͡ʃəɪˈniːz] [ˈt͡ʃəɪˌniːz] En-us-Chinese.ogg

Word forms

Chinese more Chinese most Chinese Chineses

Etymology

From China + -ese under influence of Portuguese chinês, replacing older Chinish. Doublet of chinois. In its orientalist sense of "generically exotic, backwards, or poorly organized", sometimes a deliberate marketing strategy to increase sales, as with the German Chinese checkers. In its sense related to the orientation of stage lighting's barn doors, a reference to a supposed resemblance to East Asian eyes.

Synonyms

Sinic Sino- Seric Serian Serican Sinaean Sinesian Cathayan Chinesian Seres Sinae Cathayans Serians Sinaeans Sericans Chinesians Putonghua Guoyu Huayu Guanhua Hanyu Zhongwen Han Chinaman Chinee chink Sinese Chinean Chinian Chinish

Related words

Chinesery Wiktionary’s coverage of Chinese terms

Derived words

Chinese abacus Chinese ace Chinese alchemy Chinese alligator Chinese American Chinese anemone Chinese angelica Chinese angelica tree Chinese anise Chinese arborvitae Chinese Army technique Chinese arrowroot Chinese artichoke Chinese aster Chinese auction Chinese auricular therapy Chinese Australian Chinese balance Chinese-balance Chinese bamboo partridge Chinese bamboo torture Chinese banyan Chinese barbecue sauce Chinese BASIC Chinese bayberry Chinese bellflower Chinese bezique Chinese bird spider Chinese blackjack Chinese black mushroom Chinese block Chinese blue Chinese boxes Chinese Brazilian Chinese British Chinese Briton Chinese broccoli Chinese brown sauce Chinese burn Chinese cabbage Chinese calendar Chinese Cambodian Chinese Canadian Chinese canonical texts Chinese-capstan Chinese catfish Chinese Cayman Islander Chinese cedar Chinese celery Chinese celery cabbage Chinese character Chinese character encoding Chinese chard Chinese checkers Chinese chequers Chinese cherry Chinese chess Chinese chestnut Chinese chicken salad Chinese chikwando

Translations

Afrikaans: sjinese Albanian: kinez Arabic: صِينِيّ Arabic: صيني Aragonese: chino Aragonese: chinés Armenian: չինական Assamese: চীনা Asturian: chinu Azerbaijani: çin Basque: txinatar Belarusian: кіта́йскі Bengali: চীনদেশীয় Bengali: চীনা Breton: sinaat Bulgarian: кита́йски Burmese: တရုတ် Catalan: xinès Chechen: Цийн Chechen: Цийчоьнан Chechen: цийхойн Chinese Cantonese: 中國 /中国 Chinese Cantonese: 中華 /中华 Chinese Mandarin: 中國 /中国 Chinese Mandarin: 中國的 /中国的 Chinese Mandarin: 中華 /中华 Chinese Mandarin: 中- Chinese Mandarin: 漢 /汉 Chinese Mandarin: 華 /华 Czech: čínský Danish: kinesisk Daur: niaken Dutch: Chinees Dutch: Chinese Esperanto: ĉina Esperanto: hano Estonian: hiina Faroese: kinverskur Faroese: kinesiskur Finnish: kiinalainen French: chinois Friulian: cinês Galician: chinés Galician: chino Georgian: ჩინური German: chinesisch Greek: κινέζικος Greek: κινεζικός Hawaiian: Pākē Hawaiian: Kina Hebrew: סִינִי Hebrew: סִינִית Hindi: चीनी Hungarian: kínai Icelandic: kínverskur Ido: china Indonesian: Tionghoa Indonesian: Tiongkok Interlingua: chinese
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