mandarin meaning and definition

MANDARIN noun

Definition of mandarin (noun)

1. shrub or small tree having flattened globose fruit with very sweet aromatic pulp and thin yellow-orange to flame-orange rind that is loose and easily removed; native to southeastern Asia
   • synonyms: Citrus reticulata, mandarin orange, mandarin orange tree
2. a member of an elite intellectual or cultural group
3. any high government official or bureaucrat
4. a high public official of imperial China
5. a somewhat flat reddish-orange loose skinned citrus of China
   • synonyms: mandarin orange
6. the dialect of Chinese spoken in Beijing and adopted as the official language for all of China
   • synonyms: Beijing dialect, Mandarin Chinese, Mandarin dialect