MANDARIN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does Mandarin mean? 

• MANDARIN (noun)
  The noun MANDARIN has 6 senses:

1. shrub or small tree having flattened globose fruit with very sweet aromatic pulp and thin yellow-orange to flame-orange rind that is loose and easily removed; native to southeastern Asia

2. a member of an elite intellectual or cultural group

3. any high government official or bureaucrat

4. a high public official of imperial China

5. a somewhat flat reddish-orange loose skinned citrus of China

6. the dialect of Chinese spoken in Beijing and adopted as the official language for all of China

  Familiarity information: MANDARIN used as a noun is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MANDARIN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Shrub or small tree having flattened globose fruit with very sweet aromatic pulp and thin yellow-orange to flame-orange rind that is loose and easily removed; native to southeastern Asia

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

Citrus reticulata; mandarin; mandarin orange; mandarin orange tree

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

citrus; citrus tree (any of numerous tropical usually thorny evergreen trees of the genus Citrus having leathery evergreen leaves and widely cultivated for their juicy edible fruits having leathery aromatic rinds)

Meronyms (parts of "mandarin"):

mandarin; mandarin orange (a somewhat flat reddish-orange loose skinned citrus of China)

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

tangerine; tangerine tree (a variety of mandarin orange)

clementine; clementine tree (a variety of mandarin orange that is grown around the Mediterranean and in South Africa)

satsuma; satsuma tree (a variety of mandarin orange)

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

genus Citrus (orange; lemon; lime; etc.)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A member of an elite intellectual or cultural group

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

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

elitist (someone who believes in rule by an elite group)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Any high government official or bureaucrat

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

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

functionary; official (a worker who holds or is invested with an office)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A high public official of imperial China

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

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

Chinese (a native or inhabitant of Communist China or of Nationalist China)

Sense 5

Meaning:

A somewhat flat reddish-orange loose skinned citrus of China

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

Synonyms:

mandarin; mandarin orange

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

citrous fruit; citrus; citrus fruit (any of numerous fruits of the genus Citrus having thick rind and juicy pulp; grown in warm regions)

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

clementine (a mandarin orange of a deep reddish orange color and few seeds)

satsuma (medium-sized largely seedless mandarin orange with thin smooth skin)

tangerine (any of various deep orange mandarins grown in the United States and southern Africa)

Holonyms ("mandarin" is a part of...):

Citrus reticulata; mandarin; mandarin orange; mandarin orange tree (shrub or small tree having flattened globose fruit with very sweet aromatic pulp and thin yellow-orange to flame-orange rind that is loose and easily removed; native to southeastern Asia)

Sense 6

Meaning:

The dialect of Chinese spoken in Beijing and adopted as the official language for all of China

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

Beijing dialect; Mandarin; Mandarin Chinese; Mandarin dialect

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

Chinese (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)

 Context examples 

It was gone, but Beth had remembered the little household ceremony, and there she was, nodding away at them like a rosyfaced mandarin.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)