oriental

«oriental» in Mova's school dictionary: From or to do with the countries of East Asia, like… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

part of speech

adjective (oriental; Oriental); noun (an Oriental — old-fashioned, offensive)

meaning for a pupil

1) (old-fashioned) From or to do with the countries of East Asia, like China, Japan and Korea. tree →

2) Used in some fixed names for things, like "oriental rug" or "Oriental Shorthair" (a cat breed). tree →

3) From or to do with the wider East, such as India, Persia or Arabia. tree →

sense in the lessons

Seen in old books and in names of objects and animals (oriental rugs, the oriental pratincole bird). Today, describing people as "Oriental" is old-fashioned and can be offensive; people prefer "Asian", "East Asian" or the country, such as "Chinese" or "Korean".

examples

• The museum had a room of oriental rugs. tree →
• Old maps called East Asia "the Orient". tree →
• In the old book, the market sold "oriental spices". tree →
• The Oriental Shorthair is a slim cat breed. tree →
• We say "East Asian food" rather than "oriental food" now. tree →
• Calling people "Oriental" is old-fashioned and can be hurtful. tree →
• He is well read, a remarkable Oriental scholar, and has a good judgment. tree →

note

Use with care: for people, say "Asian", "East Asian" or name the country. In US law the word was removed from federal laws in 2016. In names of objects it may still appear.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «oriental» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.