English

Proper noun

Zhou

1. A people of ancient China
2. Various regions of ancient China occupied by this people, including the Fen and Wei valleys
3. A dynasty of rulers over this people, who conquered the Shang kingdom and nominally ruled China until their conquest by Qin in the 3rd century BC
4. The realm of this dynasty, surrounding the Yellow River
5. The era of Chinese history during which this dynasty ruled
6. The valley of the Luo and Yi Rivers during the Eastern Zhou dynasty
7. The short-lived dynasty declared by Wu Zetian during the Tang
8. A common Chinese surname

Synonyms

• Chou (surname, (dated) dynasty, realm, & era)
• Chow (surname)
• China (imperial realm)

Hyponyms

• Western Zhou, Eastern Zhou (era)
• Western Zhou, Eastern Zhou (Luo–Yi valley)

Translations

English

Noun

zhou ‎(uncountable)

1. (Chinese contexts) Synonym of congee: a thick rice porridge.
   • 2008 June 11, Matthew Forney, “Scorpions for Breakfast and Snails for Dinner”, in New York Times:

     We did, however, send them to a Chinese nursery school that fed them a daily lunch of zhou, a rice porridge with various seasonings: pickled turnips, flakes of dough sticks, green or red beans, sesame paste, or something called hot prickly mustard tubers.

Related terms

• jook

Mandarin

Romanization

zhou

1. Nonstandard spelling of zhōu.
2. Nonstandard spelling of zhóu.
3. Nonstandard spelling of zhǒu.
4. Nonstandard spelling of zhòu.

Usage notes

• 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.