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Chinese

Chinese

∞ 1.4
About China, its people, language, or culture
  • adjective
  • /ˈtʃaɪniːz/
: chino
  • Do you happen to like Chinese food?
  • Chinese government
  • Chinese immigrants
  • Chinese officials

This is the first Chinese fast food in America.

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Examples

  • You know, he educated the world on Chinese culture, martial arts, right?

  • Unfortunately, Trump put tariffs on Chinese imports of solar panels.

  • This is the first Chinese fast food in America.

  • I take this walk down to the corner to the Chinese restaurant.

  • The artist stated that he had forgotten how to write his own name in Chinese characters.

    Academic text (2011)
  • This is a very famous Chinese game, Mahjong.

  • We're sitting at a booth in a Chinese restaurant in Burnie.

  • The place wasn't traditionally Chinese, of course, but nor was it truly American.

    Academic text (2011)
  • By my calculations, the Chinese border is 2,058 kilometers away.

  • Do you happen to like Chinese food?

Synonyms

Sinitic
vsChinese
  • Specialized
1 9.9

About the Chinese people, their language, and their culture

is broader and applies to the country, all its people, language, and culture
chinois
vsChinese
1 8.6

In Chinese style used in art or decoration

is the general term for the country, its people, language, and culture
Sinic
vsChinese
1 8.9

Relating to China or Chinese culture

is the everyday term for the country's language, people, and culture

Idioms

A person who has many chins because they gained weight

Very difficult for people to understand or do

Compounds

A board game on a star with six points where players move marbles to the opposite point

A very complicated object with boxes inside boxes that is hard to open

The main form of Chinese spoken in Beijing and used as China's official language

A vegetable with long pale green leaves and thick white stalks used in Asian cooking

A slow, very annoying experience that makes you feel anxious, like drops falling again and again

A decorative paper light that folds and glows when lit for festivals

2 3.4

A very long stone wall built across northern China to keep out attackers

1 1.3

A meal of Chinese dishes like rice, vegetables, and meat

Chinese Wall
  • Jargon
1 8.9

A rule to keep people in different teams from sharing secret information to avoid conflicts of interest

A 1911 revolution that ended the Qing dynasty and created the Republic of China

1 4.1

A fast-growing tree from Asia with small leaves often planted for shade or as a garden tree

A very hot sauce made from ground seeds used with Chinese food

Chinese whisper
  • Offensive
1 7.5

A game where people whisper a message along a line and it often changes

Chinese math
  • Informal
1 9.9

A task that seems very difficult to understand, like hard math

Chinese white
  • Specialized
1 8.1

A strong white paint used to make colours lighter in paintings and drawings

A group of symptoms like headache and tingling after eating food with MSG

Chinese algebra
  • Archaic
1 9.9

Something very difficult to understand, like a hard math problem

A plant from China whose root is used in traditional medicine and cooking

A tree from China and Korea that makes small sweet nuts you can eat

A small white mushroom with long thin stems used in Asian cooking

1 7.2

A vivid red with a slight orange tone often used in traditional Chinese art

A large farm goose from China with a prominent knob on its bill

A green herb with flat leaves used to add fresh flavor to food

Chinese alligator
  • Specialized
1 8.5

A small alligator that lives in China's Yangtze valley and has toes without webbing

A water plant with small crunchy bulbs eaten in Chinese cooking

1 3.5

A small fuzzy brown fruit with sour green flesh called kiwifruit

A herb with flat leaves and a mild onion taste used in Asian cooking

A leafy plant from Asia with spicy leaves used as a vegetable or seasoning

A mushroom from East Asia used in cooking with a dark cap and a tough, inedible stem

A dish of cooked rice quickly fried with egg, green onions and meat or shrimp

A large plant from China with a root people use as a strong laxative

1 6.4

A climbing plant with shiny heart-shaped leaves and edible roots

A plant with large green or patterned leaves that grows well in low light indoors

A small plant that lives for two years and makes bright blue flowers

A vegetable with thin stalks and a strong flavor used in Asian cooking

A tree that loses its leaves and has dark green leaf groups and creamy-white fragrant flowers

Chinese deity
  • Literature
1 9.8

A god or goddess from Chinese myths that people worship

A large bush or small tree with bright red flowers grown for gardens

Chinese paddlefish
  • Specialized
1 8.4

A large freshwater fish from the Yangtze River with a long paddle-shaped snout

An evergreen shrub or small tree with pointed leaves and white flowers often grown in gardens

A spice made from the bark of the cassia tree with a strong, warm flavor

A leafy vegetable with white stalks and dark green leaves used in Asian cooking

1 3.0

A climbing vine that produces fuzzy brown fruit called kiwifruit

Chinese parasol
  • Specialized
1 9.5

A tree from China with large maple-like leaves and leaflike pods

Chinese parasol tree
  • Specialized
1 9.1

A tree from Asia with large maple-like leaves, yellow-green flower clusters, and seed pods that look like leaves

A star-shaped spice pod with a strong sweet smell used in cooking

A dense rounded bush with spiny leaves often grown in gardens

A small tree with large pink or purple flowers grown in gardens

Chinese home run
  • Informal
9.0

A surprising and very large success

A dark red fruit like a plum with sweet flesh often eaten fresh or dried

A small tree from China and Japan that makes a poisonous sap used to make a hard shiny coating

A plant with bright orange, papery, lantern-shaped coverings around its small fruit

A unit of money that people use in China, like the yuan

Working extra hours without extra pay as a regular part of the job

A small tree from China grown for its pretty flowers and used in medicine

A small tree from China that has star-shaped pods used as a spice

A dark, salty sauce made with soy sauce and broth and used on Chinese dishes

A medium to large tree from China, Japan, and Korea with thick corky bark

A small dark red fruit like a plum that is sweet, chewy, and often dried

A shrub from northern China with dark green shiny leaves and pale yellow flowers grown in gardens

A small flowering plant from China that people grow in gardens for its bright flowers

A tree from China and Japan that loses its leaves and has dark green leaves and fragrant white flower clusters

Chinese Shan
  • Specialized
9.9

A language spoken in southwest Yunnan, China, by the Shan people

A tall plant from tropical Asia that people grow for strong fiber like flax from its woody stems

A climbing vine with deep purple, fragrant hanging flowers

Chinese wood oil
  • Specialized
8.9

A yellow liquid from tung tree seeds that dries quickly and protects wood

A California plant with white and pale purple flowers that grow in rings around the stem like a small tower

Surface Forms

Chinese positive

Morphology

Chinese = China (transparent) = China + ese

Formed from the country name 'China' plus the productive suffix '-ese' yielding an adjective/demonym whose meaning is predictable for learners.

Etymology

Chinese comes from the name China, which itself comes from Qin, a powerful ruling family long ago whose name was said like 'Chin'. So Chinese means 'from China' and is used for things, people, or the language of that country.