mandarin
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mandarin¹
- /ˈmæn.də.ɹɪn/ Australia, US, UK
- /mæn.dəˈɹɪn/ Australia, UK
Where it comes from
From Portuguese mandarim, mandarij, from Malay menteri, manteri, and its source, Sanskrit मन्त्रिन् (mantrin, “minister, councillor”), from मन्त्र (mantra, “counsel, maxim, mantra”) + -इन् (-in, an agent suffix).
noun mandarins
- A high government bureaucrat of the Chinese Empire. LIKE THE MANDARINS of old, the rulers of China live behind high walls. When they emerge, which they rarely do, they travel in cars with rear windows curtained like sedan chairs. They live in the Chung Nan Hai, a walled park adjacent to the Forbidden City from where ancient dynasties ruled the Celest
- A pedantic or elitist bureaucrat. The mandarins who are managing this pandemic are fond of speaking of war.
- A pedantic senior person of influence in academia or literary circles. Its sting preserved to literature a fierce peculiar genius [Waugh] who, in the 40 years before his death last week at 62, achieved recognition as the grand old mandarin of modern British prose and as a satirist whose skill at sticking pens in people rates him a roomy cell in the murderers’ row (Swif
- Ellipsis of mandarin duck
- A senior civil servant.
- A figurine of a Chinese person with movable head that was popular in the 1950s. (Cf. bobblehead.) He lay quietly in the hydropathic bed while his heart shuddered and his eyes focused at random on objects in the room, simulating a calm he could not feel. The walls of green jade, the nightlight in the porcelain mandarin whose head nodded interminably if you touched him, the multi-clock that radiat
adjective more mandarin · most mandarin
- Pertaining to or reminiscent of mandarins; deliberately superior or complex; esoteric, highbrow, obscurantist. A mandarin impassivity had descended over Smiley's face. The earlier emotion was quite gone.
mandarin²
- /ˈmæn.də.ɹɪn/ Australia, US, UK
- /mæn.dəˈɹɪn/ Australia, UK
Where it comes from
From French mandarine, feminine of mandarin, probably formed as Etymology 1, above, from the yellow colour of the mandarins' costume.
noun mandarins
- A small, sweet citrus fruit.
- A tree of the species Citrus reticulata.
- An orange colour.
Mandarin³
- /ˈmæn.də.ɹɪn/ Australia, Canada, US
- /mæn.dəˈɹɪn/ Australia, UK
- /ˈmæn.d(ə).ɹɪn/ Singapore
Where it comes from
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.
proper noun
-
Standard Mandarin, an official language of mainland China and Taiwan, and one of four official languages in Singapore; Putonghua, Guoyu or Huayu.
[...]and though the ſame word hath one ſignification in the Mandorines Language, and a contrary in Japan and other places, yet knowing one Speech and their Character, you may Travel not only through the Empire of China, but the adjacent Kingdoms.
Similar: Beifanghua, Guanhua, Guoyu, Huayu, Mandarin Chinese, Putonghua, Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin, Standard Spoken Chinese
- A branch of the Chinese languages, consisting of many dialects; Guanhua or Beifanghua. "Two, three, four, five, south! Six, seven, eight, nine, north!" Strange as it may sound, this is the way the people on the Chinese mainland complain about the lack of clothes, food and other necessities. Absent from the phrases are "one" and "ten"—"i" and "shih" in Chinese Mandarin. The words for "
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: mandarin chinese, mandarin orange, beijing dialect, citrus reticulata, mandarin dialect, chinese, putonghua, korean, accent, air, wah, tangerine, satsuma, clementine, naartjie, ponkan
Translations
Every language
noun Chinese Imperial bureaucrat
| 中文 | 官 guān |
|---|---|
| Português | mandarim |
| Français | mandarin |
| Deutsch | Mandarin |
| Italiano | mandarino |
| Ελληνικά | μανδαρίνος mandarínos |
| Română | mandarin |
| Русский | мандари́н mandarín |
| Tiếng Việt | quan |
noun elitist bureaucrat
| Română | mandarin |
|---|
noun academic or literary elitist
| Română | mandarin |
|---|
name Standard Mandarin — see also Chinese
| Español | mandarín, chino mandarín |
|---|---|
| 한국어 | 보통화 Botonghwa, 중국보통어 Junggukbotong'eo, 북경어 Bukgyeong'eo, 중국어 Junggugeo |
| 日本語 | 北京語 Pekin-go, 普通話 Futsūwa, 国語 Kokugo, 華語 Kago, 北京官話 Pekin-kanwa, 標準中国語 hyōjun Chūgokugo |
| हिन्दी | मंदारिन भाषा mandārin bhāṣā |
| Kiswahili | Kimandarini |
| Português | mandarim |
| Français | mandarin |
| Deutsch | Mandarin, Hochchinesisch |
| Italiano | mandarino |
| Русский | путунхуа́ putunxuá, мандари́н mandarín, литерату́рный кита́йский literatúrnyj kitájskij |
| Tiếng Việt | tiếng phổ thông Trung Quốc, tiếng phổ thông, tiếng Quan thoại chuẩn |
| العربية | مَنْدَرِينِيَّة mandarīniyya |
| עברית | מַנְדָּרִינִית mandarínit |
name a branch of the Chinese languages
| 한국어 | 북방어 bukbang'eo, 관화 gwanhwa |
|---|---|
| 中文 | 官話 /官话 Guānhuà, 北方話 /北方话 Běifānghuà |
| Русский | мандари́н mandarín, гуаньхуа́ guanʹxuá |
| Tiếng Việt | tiếng Quan thoại, Bắc phương thoại, tiếng Bắc Kinh |
Talk about this word "mandarin." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/mandarin. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. mandarin. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/mandarin "mandarin." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/mandarin.Cite this
@misc{mandarin_2026,
title = {mandarin},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/mandarin},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
