mandarin
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English 5++LDOCE 5++man·da·rin /ˈmændərɪn/ noun [countable] 1. DF (also mandarin orange) a kind of small orange with skin that is easy to remove 柑橘，橘子2 British EnglishPGO an important government official who people think has too much power 高级官员 Civil Service mandarins 高级文官3. PGOan important government official in the former Chinese empire 〔中国帝制时代的〕高级官吏
Examples from the Corpus
mandarin• Great guy, Jim: the son of a mandarin.• Male actors could not become mandarins, nor could actresses marry aristocrats.• The frightened mandarins agreed to parley, but Le Lieur stalled, awaiting Montigny.• The avenue ends with ferocious looking stone generals and solemn looking mandarins of various kinds.• Today you have watched our mandarins banging their foreheads on the flagstones - but not for our emperor!• Their hero was Ngo Quyen, a provincial mandarin.• So the mandarins set about finding an alternative.• Otherwise they will have barely tried life under Maastricht before their mandarins must start haggling again.Mandarin noun [uncountable] SLLthe official language of China, spoken by most educated Chinese people 普通话Examples from the Corpus
Mandarin• I would have been great as a chef, a Mandarin actor, or a fence post.• The pronunciations given for these components, and for the characters of which they form part, are those of present-day Mandarin.• The most widely spoken of these is Mandarin with about 800m speakers.• Most speak Cantonese, with a little Mandarin and Hakka also spoken.• He was a matinee-handsome man who could have been an actor on the Mandarin stage.• This was before I had the clips that translated into expense accounts and hotels like the Shangri-la or the Mandarin.• For you, the Mandarin Club guest, breakfast in the morning and cocktails in the evening are with our compliments.Origin mandarin 1. (1700-1800) French mandarine, from Spanish mandarina, probably from mandarín 'MANDARIN3'; perhaps because mandarins wore orange-colored clothes. 2. (1500-1600) Portuguese mandarim, from Malay menteri, from Sanskrit mantrin “adviser”, from mantra; → MANTRA Mandarin (1700-1800) mandarinman·da·rin nounMandarin nounChineseSyllable
kind skin Corpus that orange of small with a
Mandarin
Mandarin
noun [uncountable]
Mandarin
noun [uncountable] Date: 1700-1800
Origin: mandarin
the official language of China, spoken by most educated Chinese people
Origin: mandarin
mandarin
man·da·rin /ˈmændərɪn/ noun [countable]
Language: French
Origin: mandarine, from Spanish mandarina, probably from mandarín __mandarin3__; perhaps because mandarins wore orange-colored clothes.
Language: Portuguese
Origin: mandarim, from Malay menteri, from Sanskrit mantrin __adviser__, from mantra; ⇨ mantra1. (also ˌmandarin ˈorange) a kind of small orange with skin that is easy to remove
2. British English an important government official who people think has too much power:
Civil Service mandarins
3. an important government official in the former Chinese empire
man·da·rin /ˈmændərɪn/
noun [countable] Sense 1
Date: 1700-1800Language: French
Origin: mandarine, from Spanish mandarina, probably from mandarín __mandarin3__; perhaps because mandarins wore orange-colored clothes.
Sense 2-3
Date: 1500-1600Language: Portuguese
Origin: mandarim, from Malay menteri, from Sanskrit mantrin __adviser__, from mantra; ⇨ mantra
2. British English an important government official who people think has too much power:
3. an important government official in the former Chinese empire