Mandarin

Meaning

1. (uncountable) Standard Mandarin, an official language of China and Taiwan, and one of four official languages in Singapore; Putonghua, Guoyu or Huayu.
2. (uncountable) A branch of the Chinese languages, consisting of many dialects; Guanhua or Beifanghua.

Synonyms

Mandarin Chinese

Putonghua

Beijing dialect

Mandarin dialect

national language

official language

Simplified Chinese

speech

tangerine

🍊

tongue

👅

Traditional Chinese

voice

Chinese language

Pekinese

language

the standard Chinese language

linguistic communication

mandarin

🍊

mandarin duck

mandarin orange

Translations

Mandarin

🍊

mandarin

🍊

mandarín

🍊

Mandarijns

🍊

Mandarim

mandarino

🍊

Hochchinesisch

Mandarin

chino mandarín

🍊

Chinesisch

🇨🇳/🇲🇴

mandarim

🍊

Mandarijn

🍊

المندرينية

lingua Sinensis Mandarinica

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈmæn.də.ɹɪn/

Etymology

Calque from Chinese 官話／官话 (Guānhuà, “spoken language of the mandarins”). An extension of mandarin (“bureaucrat of the Chinese Empire”) to the language used by the imperial court and sometimes by imperial officials elsewhere. As such, it was adopted as a synonym for Modern Standard Chinese in the 20th century. The term became ambiguous, however, as its use was extended to the various Northern dialects of Chinese.