chinese
adjective · noun
Simple meaning
Of or about China or its peoples or cultures.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
chyneezSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
tʃaɪˈniz
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Of or pertaining to China or its peoples or cultures
Of, from, or related to China, particularly now the People's Republic of China.
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.
Of, from, or related to the people of China, particularly the Han Chinese and their culture whether in China or overseas.
(non-subsective, prepositive, in set phrases, sometimes offensive) Used with a noun to indicate a referent different from, and seemingly more exotic or unusual than, the base noun's referent.
noun
uncountable
The Standard Chinese language, written in Chinese characters and spoken and spelled using Standard Mandarin pronunciation.
A native or inhabitant of Communist China or of Nationalist China
uncountable
The branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family including Mandarin, Cantonese, Shanghainese, Southern Min, and other closely related language varieties and dialects.
uncountable
The logographic writing system shared by most Sinitic languages.
ukcountablecolloquial
Ellipsis of Chinese meal ("meal consisting of Chinese cuisine").
ukcountablecolloquial
Ellipsis of Chinese restaurant ("restaurant serving Chinese cuisine").
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner (estimated)
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
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Word Aura is being prepared for this meaning.
More ways to use chinese
- “We enjoy eating delicious Chinese food for dinner sometimes.”adjective
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Common Patterns and Combinations
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Small alligator of the Yangtze valley of China having unwebbed digits.
Similar to American angelica tree but less prickly.
Similar to American angelica tree but less prickly.
Small tree of China and Vietnam bearing anise-scented star-shaped fruit used in food and medicinally as a carminative.
Edible east Asian mushroom having a golden or dark brown to blackish cap and an inedible stipe.
A sauce based on soy sauce.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: standard Chinese language
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.