xian

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English

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Etymology 1

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of Mandarin .

Alternative forms

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Noun

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xian (plural xians)

  1. (China, Taiwan) An administrative subdivision of imperial, republican, and communist China roughly equivalent to counties, now distinguished from the more urban "districts" (qu). (Alternative form of hsien for Taiwan (ROC).)
    Synonym: county
Derived terms
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Etymology 2

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An alternative capitalization of Xian.

Noun

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xian (plural xians)

  1. (sometimes derogatory or offensive) Alternative form of Xian: Christian.

Adjective

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xian (not comparable)

  1. (sometimes derogatory or offensive) Alternative form of Xian: Christian.
    • 1993, Mary Moody Emerson, edited by Nancy Craig Simmons, The Selected Letters of Mary Moody Emerson, Athens: University of Georgia Press, page 242:
      But what an epoch in the xian world—what a time for a xian Orator to make a deep & eternal impression on socity[sic].

References

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Anagrams

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Mandarin

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Romanization

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xian

  1. Nonstandard spelling of xiān.
  2. Nonstandard spelling of xián.
  3. Nonstandard spelling of xiǎn.
  4. Nonstandard spelling of xiàn.

Usage notes

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  • Transcriptions of Mandarin into the Latin script often do not distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without indication of tone.