Chinese
Pronunciation: /tʃʌɪˈniːz/
noun ( plural )
- 2a native or inhabitant of China, or a person of Chinese descent.
- British informal a Chinese meal: a takeaway Chinese washed down with Chardonnay
- British informal a Chinese restaurant: we found a Chinese in Soho
- Chinese, a member of the Sino-Tibetan language family, is the world’s most commonly spoken first language, with an estimated 1.2 billion native speakers worldwide. The script is logographic, using characters which originated as stylized pictographs but now also represent abstract concepts and the sounds of syllables. Though complex, it permits written communication between speakers of the many dialects, most of which are mutually incomprehensible in speech. For transliteration into the Roman alphabet, the Pinyin system is now usually used
adjective
- relating to China or its language, culture, or people.
- belonging to the people forming the dominant ethnic group of China and also widely dispersed elsewhere. Also called Han.