Word.ws English Dictionary

Central Plain

Central Plain proper noun: the region on the lower reaches of the Yellow River in China which formed the cradle of Chinese civilization.

Proper noun

Central Plain

  1. The region on the lower reaches of the Yellow River in China which formed the cradle of Chinese civilization.
    • ASIATIC civilization is the product of “Mesopotamias”, of great alluvial plains where the natural fertility of the soil stimulated man’s agricultural vocation. Such was the case of Babylon in western Asia; such is the case of the “Central Plain” of China in eastern Asia.[...]In the same way that...1952, René Grousset, “Chinese Earth”, in The Rise and Splendour of the Chinese Empire, University of California Press, published 1970, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 9
    • Within the larger sphere of eastern Asia the Chinese people as we know it today is better defined by language and culture than in anthropological terms. In general a distinction of the physical type may be observed north and south of the Yangtze river, a boundary which corresponded in early times...1961, William Watson, “Introduction”, in China Before the Han Dynasty (Ancient Peoples and Places), New York: Frederick A. Praeger, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 11

Examples of Central Plain in a sentence

  • This area, known to the Chinese as Chung Yuan, or central plain, has always been the heartland of the “Middle Kingdom.”1964, Sherman E. Lee, “Urban Civilization and the Indus Valley; Neolithic and Pre-Shang China”, in A History of Far Eastern Art, New York...
  • When their eastbound march was thwarted by the early Central Plain dwellers, they simply found their way to the sparsely populated southern territory [because it was] easier and less hostile."2012 December 9, “Grain finds in Yunnan province may shed light on a Bronze Age civilisation”, in South China Morning Post, →ISSN, →OCLC...

Forms of Central Plain

alternative formCentral Plains

Origin of Central Plain

central + plain: Calque from Chinese 中原 (Mandarin 中原 (Zhōngyuán),Zhōngyuán; Cantonese 中原 (zung¹ jyun⁴)).

Questions about Central Plain

What does Central Plain mean?
Central Plain means the region on the lower reaches of the Yellow River in China which formed the cradle of Chinese civilization.
How do you use Central Plain in a sentence?
This area, known to the Chinese as Chung Yuan, or central plain, has always been the heartland of the “Middle Kingdom.”
What part of speech is Central Plain?
Central Plain is a proper noun.

Words near Central Plain in the dictionary

  1. central pain syndrome
  2. Central Papua
  3. Central Park
  4. central pawn
  5. central pawns
  6. Central Plain
  7. Central Plains
  8. central planning
  9. Central Plateau
  10. Central Point
  11. Central Powers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Central Plain (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “Central Plain.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/central_plain. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.