CHINA
What does "CHINA" mean?
Fine porcelain or ceramic ware, especially tableware.
Meanings
- Porcelain or fine earthenware, especially plates, cups, and dishes. She brought out the good china for the holiday dinner.
- A friend or mate (British rhyming slang, from 'china plate' for 'mate'). All right, my old china? informal
Did you know?
- In Cockney rhyming slang, calling someone your 'old china' means your old friend: it comes from 'china plate', which rhymes with 'mate'.
Word origin
The material is named after the country China, where porcelain was first made; the country's name reached English through Persian and Sanskrit, likely from the Qin dynasty. (As a lowercase common noun it means porcelain.)
Remember it
CHINA the material is named for CHINA the country - same five letters, the porcelain just travelled west.
A little poem
Thin as a held breath-
fired clay that crossed an ocean
to break in one hand.
haiku
Wordplay
- I dropped the good plate and called my friend in a panic. Turns out in Cockney, I lost my china and kept my china.
What it teaches
China earns its value by being breakable; the things we handle most carefully are never the strong ones.
Quick facts
What does CHINA mean?
Fine porcelain or ceramic ware, especially tableware.
Is CHINA a valid word?
Yes — CHINA is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is CHINA?
CHINA has 5 letters and 2 syllables.
Where does CHINA come from?
The material is named after the country China, where porcelain was first made; the country's name reached English through Persian and Sanskrit, likely from the Qin dynasty. (As a lowercase common noun it means porcelain.)
What can CHINA teach us?
China earns its value by being breakable; the things we handle most carefully are never the strong ones.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.