Man·da·rin

(măn′də-rĭn)

1. Any of a group of related dialects of Chinese spoken principally in the north and west of China.

2. The official national standard spoken language of China, based on the Mandarin dialect spoken in and around Beijing. Also called Guoyu, Putonghua.

[From mandarin (from its use in administration in imperial China ).]

man·da·rin

(măn′də-rĭn)

1. A member of any of the nine ranks of high public officials in the Chinese Empire.

2. A high government official or bureaucrat.

3. A member of an elite group, especially a person having influence or high status in intellectual or cultural circles.

4. A mandarin orange.

adj.

1. Of, relating to, or resembling a mandarin.

2. Marked by elaborate and refined language or literary style.

[From Spanish mandarín, from Portuguese mandarim, from Malay menteri, from Sanskrit mantrī, mantrin-, counselor, from mantraḥ, counsel; see men- in Indo-European roots.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

mandarin

(ˈmændərɪn)

1. (Historical Terms) (in the Chinese Empire) a member of any of the nine senior grades of the bureaucracy, entered by examinations

2. (Government, Politics & Diplomacy) (in the Chinese Empire) a member of any of the nine senior grades of the bureaucracy, entered by examinations

3. (Government, Politics & Diplomacy) a high-ranking official whose powers are extensive and thought to be outside political control

4. a person of standing and influence, as in literary or intellectual circles

5. (Plants)

a. a small citrus tree, Citrus nobilis, cultivated for its edible fruit

b. the fruit of this tree, resembling the tangerine

[C16: from Portuguese mandarim, via Malay menteri from Sanskrit mantrin counsellor, from mantra counsel]

ˈmandarinate n

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

man•da•rin

(ˈmæn də rɪn)

n.

1. (in the Chinese Empire) a member of any of the nine ranks of public officials.

2. (cap.)

a. a more or less uniform spoken form of the Chinese language based loosely on the dialect of Beijing and used by officials in late imperial China.

b. the group of related Chinese dialects, including Mandarin and the modern standard language, spoken in SW, central, and N China and in Manchuria.

a. a small spiny Chinese citrus tree, Citrus reticulata, bearing flattish orange-yellow to deep orange loose-skinned fruit.

b. this fruit, some hybrid varieties of which are called tangerines.

4. an influential or powerful government official or bureaucrat.

5. a member of an elite or powerful group or class.

adj.

6. of or pertaining to a mandarin or mandarins.

7. elegantly refined, as in language or taste.

[1580–90; < Portuguese mandarim, < Malay məntəri « Skt mantrin councilor]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	mandarin - 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 Citrus reticulata, mandarin orange, mandarin orange tree mandarin orange, mandarin - a somewhat flat reddish-orange loose skinned citrus of China genus Citrus - orange; lemon; lime; etc. citrus tree, citrus - 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 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
	2.	mandarin - a member of an elite intellectual or cultural group elitist - someone who believes in rule by an elite group
	3.	mandarin - any high government official or bureaucrat functionary, official - a worker who holds or is invested with an office
	4.	mandarin - a high public official of imperial China Chinese - a native or inhabitant of Communist China or of Nationalist China
	5.	mandarin - a somewhat flat reddish-orange loose skinned citrus of China mandarin orange citrous fruit, citrus, citrus fruit - any of numerous fruits of the genus Citrus having thick rind and juicy pulp; grown in warm regions 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 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
	6.	Mandarin - the dialect of Chinese spoken in Beijing and adopted as the official language for all of China Beijing dialect, Mandarin Chinese, Mandarin dialect 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

Translations

فاكِهَة المَندَرين، يوسِف إفَنْديمُوَظَّفيوسفيُوسِفِيّ

мандарин

mandarinkamandarínmandarinkovníkmandarínštinavysoký státní úředník

mandarinkinesisk

Mandarin Mandarine

μανδαρίνος μανταρίνι περγαμόντο

mandarín mandarina chino mandarín

mandariinimandariinikiinavirkamiesaurinkokuningas

mandarin mandarine

dužnosnikmandarina

mandarin

mandarínamandaríni

mandarino

マンダリンオレンジ上級官吏蜜柑

관료귤

mandarinas

mandarīns

mandarijnMandarijns

mandarin byråkrat kinesisk tjenestemann

mandarynka mandaryn

Mandarim tangerinamandarinabergamota mandachuva

мандарин путунхуа чиновник литературный китайский

mandarínmandarínkamandarínkovník

mandarin

ข้าราชการพลเรือนส้มจีน

mandalinamandarinÇin’de yüksek memur

quả quýtviên chức chính phủ

中国柑桔桔子满清官吏蜜柑内务官员

mandarin

[ˈmændərɪn] N

1. (= person) (lit, fig) → mandarín m

2. (also mandarin orange) → mandarina f

3. Mandarin (Ling) → mandarín m

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

Mandarin

[ˈmændərɪn] n (= language) → mandarin m

mandarin

[ˈmændərɪn] n

(also mandarin orange) → mandarine f

(= person) → mandarin m

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

mandarin

(= Chinese official) → Mandarin m; (= official) → hoher Funktionär, Bonze m (pej)

(Ling) Mandarin → Hochchinesisch nt

(= fruit) → Mandarine f

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

mandarin

[ˈmændərɪn] n

a. (person) → mandarino

b. (also mandarin orange) → mandarino

mandarin

(ˈmӕndərin) noun

1. (also mandarin orange) a type of small orange.

2. an official of high rank in the Chinese Empire.

mandarin

→ مُوَظَّف, يُوسِفِيّ mandarinka, vysoký státní úředník mandarin Mandarin, Mandarine μανδαρίνος, μανταρίνι mandarín, mandarina mandariini, virkamies mandarin, mandarine dužnosnik, mandarina mandarino マンダリンオレンジ, 上級官吏 관료, 귤 mandarijn byråkrat, mandarin mandaryn, mandarynka mandachuva, mandarim, tangerina мандарин, чиновник mandarin ข้าราชการพลเรือน, ส้มจีน Çin’de yüksek memur, mandalina quả quýt, viên chức chính phủ 中国柑桔, 内务官员

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

As for our mandarin with whom we travelled, he was respected as a king, surrounded always with his gentlemen, and attended in all his appearances with such pomp, that I saw little of him but at a distance.

We set out with very good advantage as to finding the way; for we got leave to travel in the retinue of one of their mandarins, a kind of viceroy or principal magistrate in the province where they reside, and who take great state upon them, travelling with great attendance, and great homage from the people, who are sometimes greatly impoverished by them, being obliged to furnish provisions for them and all their attendants in their journeys.

View in context

Through them the symbols of the mandarin duck and drake, the one-winged birds, the tree whose boughs are interwoven, are revealed.

View in context

Helpless, ridiculous, confined, bobbing like a toy mandarin, you sit like a rat in a trap--you, before whom butlers cringe on solid land--and must squeak upward through a slit in your peripatetic sarcophagus to make your feeble wishes known.

View in context

At this, Mrs Boffin fairly screamed with rapture, and sat beating her feet upon the floor, clapping her hands, and bobbing herself backwards and forwards, like a demented member of some Mandarin's family.

View in context

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

View in context

Rose said she would be kind; but had not the least idea how to entertain the queer guest, who looked as if he had walked out of one of the rice-paper landscapes on the wall, and sat nodding at her so like a toy Mandarin that she could hardly keep sober.

View in context

We could get rid of them and their money afterwards by delivering them to their Mandarin or Taotai, or whatever they call these chaps in goggles you see being carried about in sedan-chairs through their stinking streets.

View in context

The bad side of human thought will always be defined by the paradox of Jean Jacques Rousseau, -- you remember, -- the mandarin who is killed five hundred leagues off by raising the tip of the finger.

View in context

Many of the challenges with teaching Mandarin remotely are inherent to teaching Mandarin, period.

A growing number of student across the country could tell you that this headline means "teaching Mandarin remotely in the US." Here's how new distance learning technologies are making Chinese language learning flexible, affordable, and effective

This fall marked the beginning of a new curriculum for the school district, with Mandarin Chinese classes now required for all pre-K12 students.

Mandarin Chinese descends on the deep south

Twitchers from across the region are heading to Bridgnorth where a magnifi-cent multi-coloured Mandarin duck has set up home on the River Severn.

This Peking duck looks a bit tasty