mandarin

  1. Proper noun.  Standard Mandarin, the official language of China and Taiwan, and one of four official languages in Singapore; Putonghua, Guoyu or Huayu.
  2. Proper noun.  A branch of the Chinese languages, consisting of many dialects; Guanhua or Beifanghua.
  3. Noun.  (historical) A high government bureaucrat of the Chinese Empire.
  4. Noun.  A pedantic or elitist bureaucrat.
  5. Noun.  A pedantic senior person of influence in academia or literary circles, often used pejoratively.
  6. Noun.  A mandarin duck.
  7. Noun.  (informal, British) A senior civil servant.
  8. Adjective.  Pertaining to mandarins.
  9. Adjective.  Deliberately superior or complex; esoteric, elaborate.
  10. Noun.  A mandarin orange; a small, sweet citrus fruit.
  11. Noun.  A mandarin orange tree.
  12. Noun.  An orange colour.

This is an unmodified, but possibly outdated, definition from Wiktionary and used here under the Creative Commons license. Wiktionary is a great resource. If you like it too, please donate to Wikimedia.

This entry was last updated on RefTopia from its source on 3/20/2012.