CHINESE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does Chinese mean? 

• CHINESE (noun)
  The noun CHINESE has 2 senses:

1. any of the Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in China; regarded as dialects of a single language (even though they are mutually unintelligible) because they share an ideographic writing system

2. a native or inhabitant of Communist China or of Nationalist China

  Familiarity information: CHINESE used as a noun is rare.

• CHINESE (adjective)
  The adjective CHINESE has 2 senses:

1. of or pertaining to China or its peoples or cultures

2. of or relating to or characteristic of the island republic on Taiwan or its residents or their language

  Familiarity information: CHINESE used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CHINESE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any of the Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in China; regarded as dialects of a single language (even though they are mutually unintelligible) because they share an ideographic writing system

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("Chinese" is a kind of...):

Sinitic; Sinitic language (a group of Sino-Tibetan languages)

Domain region:

Cathay; China; Communist China; mainland China; People's Republic of China; PRC; Red China (a communist nation that covers a vast territory in eastern Asia; the most populous country in the world)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "Chinese"):

Beijing dialect; Mandarin; Mandarin Chinese; Mandarin dialect (the dialect of Chinese spoken in Beijing and adopted as the official language for all of China)

Shanghai dialect; Wu; Wu dialect (a dialect of Chinese spoken in the Yangtze delta)

Cantonese; Cantonese dialect; Yue; Yue dialect (the dialect of Chinese spoken in Canton and neighboring provinces and in Hong Kong and elsewhere outside China)

Amoy; Fukien; Fukkianese; Hokkianese; Min; Min dialect; Taiwanese (any of the forms of Chinese spoken in Fukien province)

Hakka; Hakka dialect (a dialect of Chinese spoken in southeastern China by the Hakka)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A native or inhabitant of Communist China or of Nationalist China

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("Chinese" is a kind of...):

Asian; Asiatic (a native or inhabitant of Asia)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "Chinese"):

Chinaman; chink ((ethnic slur) offensive term for a person of Chinese descent)

Boxer (a member of a nationalistic Chinese secret society that led an unsuccessful rebellion in 1900 against foreign interests in China)

Hakka (a member of a people of southeastern China (especially Hong Kong, Canton, and Taiwan) who migrated from the north in the 12th century)

mandarin (a high public official of imperial China)

Holonyms ("Chinese" is a member of...):

Cathay; China; Communist China; mainland China; People's Republic of China; PRC; Red China (a communist nation that covers a vast territory in eastern Asia; the most populous country in the world)

China; Nationalist China; Republic of China; Taiwan (a government on the island of Taiwan established in 1949 by Chiang Kai-shek after the conquest of mainland China by the Communists led by Mao Zedong)

• CHINESE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Of or pertaining to China or its peoples or cultures

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Context example:

Chinese food

Pertainym:

China (a government on the island of Taiwan established in 1949 by Chiang Kai-shek after the conquest of mainland China by the Communists led by Mao Zedong)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Of or relating to or characteristic of the island republic on Taiwan or its residents or their language

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Synonyms:

Chinese; Formosan; Taiwanese

Context example:

the Taiwanese capital is Taipeh

 Context examples 

The sodium salt of camptothecin, an alkaloid isolated from the Chinese tree Camptotheca acuminata, with antineoplastic activity.

(Camptothecin Sodium, NCI Thesaurus)

An alkaloid isolated from the Chinese tree Camptotheca acuminata, with antineoplastic activity.

(Camptothecin, NCI Thesaurus)

The hydrated, crystalline propionate ester (attached in position C-20) prodrug of camptothecin, an alkaloid isolated from the Chinese tree Camptotheca acuminata, with potential antineoplastic activity.

(Camptothecin-20(S)-O-Propionate Hydrate, NCI Thesaurus)

The Chinese Crested comes in two distinct varieties: one is hairless except for its feet, head and tail, and called the Hairless; the other is called the Powder Puff.

(Chinese Crested, NCI Thesaurus)

An oral traditional Chinese herbal formulation in powder form containing a spray dried aqueous extract from the herbs Scutellaria baicalensis, Glycyrrhiza uralensis, Ziziphus jujuba and Paeonia lactiflora with potential immunomodulating and chemoprotective activities.

(Chinese Herbal Formulation PHY906, NCI Thesaurus)

Of note, Chinese hamster ovary cell lines are highly transfectable and are used in a variety of pre-clinical research applications.

(Chinese Hamster, NCI Thesaurus)

A bufadienolide toxin originally isolated from the venom of the Chinese toad Bufo gargarizans; it is also one of the glycosides in the traditional Chinese medicine ChanSu, with potential cardiotonic activity.

(Bufogenin, NCI Thesaurus)

An oral capsule formulation of a traditional Chinese herbal medicine with potential analgesic activity.

(Blue Citrus-Based Herbal Capsule, NCI Thesaurus)

Most of the matter might have been written in Chinese for any definite meaning that it conveyed to my brain.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

These practices, especially in the form of Traditional Chinese Medicine have a prominent position in the U.S.

(Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, NCI Thesaurus)