Chi·nese (ch?-n?z?, -n?s?)adj. Of or relating to China or its peoples, languages, or cultures.n. pl. Chinese 1. a. A native or inhabitant of China.b. A person of Chinese ancestry.c. See Han1.2. a. The sole member of the Sinitic branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family, consisting of numerous languages and dialects such as Mandarin, Cantonese, Taiwanese, and Fujian.b. Any of the Sinitic varieties of speech spoken by the Chinese people.c. The official national language of China; Mandarin.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.Chinese (t?a??ni?z) adj1. (Placename) of, relating to, or characteristic of China, its people, or their languages2. (Peoples) of, relating to, or characteristic of China, its people, or their languages3. (Languages) of, relating to, or characteristic of China, its people, or their languagesnpl -nese4. (Peoples) a native or inhabitant of China or a descendant of one5. (Languages) any of the languages of China belonging to the Sino-Tibetan family, sometimes regarded as dialects of one language. They share a single writing system that is not phonetic but ideographic. A phonetic system using the Roman alphabet was officially adopted by the Chinese government in 1966. See also Mandarin Chinese, Pekingese, CantoneseCollins English Dictionary ? Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014Chi?nese (t?a??niz, -?nis) n., pl. -nese, adj. n. 1. a native or inhabitant of China. 2. a Sino-Tibetan language or language family, comprising a wide variety of speech forms, many mutually unintelligible, that are traditionally labeled dialects, and are written with identical characters. Abbr.: Chin., Chin 3. a member of the people who speak Chinese, collectively representing the great majority of the inhabitants of China and Taiwan, and forming a significant population element in Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and other countries of Southeast Asia. adj. 4. of or pertaining to China or its inhabitants. 5. of or pertaining to the language Chinese or its speakers. [1570?80] Random House Kernerman Webster’s College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.