Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • A Chinese dynasty (206 BC–AD 220) noted for unifying and expanding its national territory and for promoting literature and the arts.
  • A river, about 1,530 km (950 mi) long, of east-central China flowing generally southeast to the Yangtze River.
  • noun A member of the largest ethnic group of China, especially as distinguished from Manchus, Mongols, Huis, and other minority nationalities.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An old present indicative plural and infinitive of have, contracted from haven.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • obsolete To have; have.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun the ancient dynasty in the mainland China, dated 206 BCE - 220 CE around the Parthian times, and marked by the stable feudal system, and the fusion of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism.
  • proper noun the Chinese population and culture, as distinguished from the surroundings, especially in ancient times.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun imperial dynasty that ruled China (most of the time from 206 BC to AD 220) and expanded its boundaries and developed its bureaucracy; remembered as one of the great eras of Chinese civilization

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Mandarin Hàn; see Han.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Mandarin Hàn, the Han people, Han dynasty, the name of the Han River, from Middle Chinese xan` (the name of the people and dynasty being derived from the Old Chinese name of the river).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Mandarin: trad. , simpl. (pinyin: hàn)

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word Han.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.