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earthly branch

earthly branch noun: the (approximately) twelve years of Jupiter's orbital period, forming the Chinese zodiac and personified as twelve or sixty gods known as Tai Sui.

Noun

earthly branch (plural earthly branches)

  1. (historical) The (approximately) twelve years of Jupiter's orbital period, forming the Chinese zodiac and personified as twelve or sixty gods known as Tai Sui.
  2. The twelve animals representing the Chinese zodiac, (particularly) as a birthyear.
  3. (obsolete) The twelve months of the Chinese lunar year.
  4. (historical navigation) The twelve bearings of traditional Chinese navigation, comprising 30° divisions of the compass beginning with due north.
  5. (historical) The duodecimal divisions of the Chinese seasons, beginning with the second of the three divisions of winter.
  6. (historical chronometry) The duodecimal divisions of the day into "Chinese" or "double hours", beginning with 11 pm.
  7. (historical chronometry) The exact time at the middle of a "Chinese" or "double hour", beginning with midnight.

earthly branch meaning in Vietnamese

earthly branch in Vietnamese

set of twelve terms in East Asian cultures
địa chi

Synonyms of earthly branch

Forms of earthly branch

pluralearthly branches

Origin of earthly branch

Calque of Chinese 地支 (dìzhī)

Questions about earthly branch

What does earthly branch mean?
Earthly branch means the (approximately) twelve years of Jupiter's orbital period, forming the Chinese zodiac and personified as twelve or sixty gods known as Tai Sui.
What is earthly branch in Vietnamese?
Earthly branch in Vietnamese is địa chi. See Earthly branch meaning in Vietnamese.
What part of speech is earthly branch?
Earthly branch is a noun.
What is the plural of earthly branch?
The plural of earthly branch is earthly branches.

Words near earthly branch in the dictionary

  1. earthling
  2. earthlings
  3. earthlit
  4. earthlore
  5. earthly
  6. earthly branch
  7. earthly branches
  8. earthly marriage
  9. earthly marriages
  10. earthly paradise
  11. earthly paradises

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: earthly branch (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.

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