Confucius

Syllables: Con·fu·cius/kənˈfjuː.ʃəs/US/kənˈfju.ʃəs/

Confucius proper noun: an influential Chinese philosopher who lived c. 551 BCE – c. 479 BCE; personal name Kong Qiu (孔丘).

Image: Wu Daozi, 685-758, Tang Dynasty, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Proper noun

Confucius

An influential Chinese philosopher who lived c. 551 BCE – c. 479 BCE; personal name Kong Qiu (孔丘).
- Theſe Books mention only three Sects to have been in vogue in the World ; for of other Sects there is not the leaſt mention made. The firſt is the Sect of the Learned : The ſecond is called Sciequia : And the third Lancu. The firſt of theſe three is followed by all the Chineſes, and the adjacent...1669 [1665], John Nievhoff, “Of ſeveral SECTS in CHINA : Concerning PHILOSOPHY, and IDOL WORSHIP.”, in John Ogilby, transl., An Embassy from the Eaſt-India Company of the United Provinces, to the...
- The thirty eighth Year of the Cycle Confucius was preferr’d for his great Merit to be Prime Miniſter of the Kingdom of Lû, his native Country. Thro’ his wiſe Counſel the Face of Affairs was ſoon chang'd throughout the Land ; he reform’d the Abuſes that had crept into it, and reſtor’d Honeſty in...1738, J. B. Du Halde, “Annals of the Chinese Monarchs”, in A Description of the Empire of China and Chinese-Tartary, Together with the Kingdoms of Korea, and Tibet, volume I, London, →OCLC, page 167
(rare) A male given name from Latin.

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The thirty eighth Year of the Cycle Confucius was preferr’d for his great Merit to be Prime Miniſter of the Kingdom of Lû, his native Country.1738, J. B. Du Halde, “Annals of the Chinese Monarchs”, in A Description of the Empire of China and Chinese-Tartary, Together with the...
This change, which came under attack in the fall of 1973 during the campaign to criticize Lin Piao and Confucius, pleased middle school teachers in No. 6 Middle School in Tan-tung, Liaoning.1977, Thomas P. Bernstein, “Mobilizing Urban Youth to Go to the Countryside”, in Up to the Mountains and Down to the Villages: The Transfer...
You may have just gotten checkmate, but we're playing Chinese checkers, and as my old friend Confucius say; the hunter has become the hunter-ed.2007, Xavier: Renegade Angel, season 1, episode 4, spoken by Xavier (Vernon Chatman):

alternative form (obsolete)	Confuçius

Learned borrowing from New Latin Cōnfucius, from Mandarin 孔夫子 (Kǒng Fūzǐ, honorific title, literally “Master Kong”) + Latin -ius.

What does Confucius mean?: Confucius means an influential Chinese philosopher who lived c. 551 BCE – c. 479 BCE; personal name Kong Qiu (孔丘).
What is Confucius in Hindi?: Confucius in Hindi is कन्फ़्यूशियस (kanfyūśiyas). See Confucius meaning in Hindi.
How do you use Confucius in a sentence?: The thirty eighth Year of the Cycle Confucius was preferr’d for his great Merit to be Prime Miniſter of the Kingdom of Lû, his native Country.
What part of speech is Confucius?: Confucius is a proper noun.
How do you pronounce Confucius?: Confucius is pronounced /kənˈfju.ʃəs/ (US).

Adapted from Wiktionary: Confucius (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Confucius.wav.

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