xian

From the pinyin romanization of Mandarin 縣／县 (xiàn).

• hsien (archaic)

xian (plural xians)

1. (China) An administrative subdivision of imperial, republican, and communist China roughly equivalent to counties, now distinguished from the more urban "districts" (qu).

   Synonym: county

   • 1987, Rawson, Jessica, “The Eastern Zhou Period”, in Chinese Bronzes: Art and Ritual‎, British Museum Publications, →ISBN, OCLC 1183919119, page 47:

     Tight and dense motifs occur on bronzes excavated in 1923 from a tomb at Lijialou at Xinzheng Xian in southern Henan attributed to the small state of Zheng.

• Gui Xian

An alternative capitalization of Xian.

xian (plural xians)

1. (sometimes derogatory or offensive) Alternative form of Xian: Christian.

xian (not comparable)

1. (sometimes derogatory or offensive) Alternative form of Xian: Christian.
   • 1993, Emerson, Mary Moody, Simmons, Nancy Craig, editor, The Selected Letters of Mary Moody Emerson, Athens: University of Georgia Press, page 242:

     But what an epoch in the xian world—what a time for a xian Orator to make a deep & eternal impression on socity^[sic].

• What does 'xian' mean?

• Axin, Naxi, axin

xian

1. Nonstandard spelling of xiān.
2. Nonstandard spelling of xián.
3. Nonstandard spelling of xiǎn.
4. Nonstandard spelling of xiàn.

• English transcriptions of Mandarin speech often fail to distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without the appropriate indication of tone.