jin
/d͡ʒɪn/
jin is the alternative spelling of jinn.
Meaning of jinn
Noun
jinn (plural jinns or jinn or jawan or jinnan or jinnah)
- A human-like spiritual or immaterial being, as opposed to al-ins (people), often invisible but able to manifest in form and also inhabit people or animals; origin of the genie of Western literature, film etc.
- Even the sad jinn within the graven image slept[.]1961, Xavier Herbert, Soldiers' Women, Netley, SA: Fontana Books, published 1978, page 342
Noun
jin (plural jins or jin)
Proper noun (1) capitalized: Jin
Jin
- A river (晉水) in Shanxi Province, China, emptying into the Fen River.
- A marchland (c. 1046–677 BC) and duchy (677–376 BC) of the Zhou Kingdom around the river.
- A Chinese surname.
- A titular principality of the Wei Empire (est. AD 264) and other later Chinese states.
- Synonyms:
- Sima Jin, Liang Jin
- An empire in China (AD 265–420) established by Sima Yan's overthrow of the Wei and replaced by barbarian conquerors in the north and Liu Yu's Song Empire in the south.
- Synonym of Sima: the dynasty which ruled this empire.
- Synonyms:
- Sima
- The late 3rd to early 5th century, the era during which the Sima clan were the legitimate emperors of China.
- A river (Jin River, 晉江／晋江 (Jìnjiāng)) in Quanzhou Municipality, Fujian, China, emptying into the Taiwan Strait.
- Between 1946 and 1948 in the ruins of the foundations of Quanzhou’s South Gate Tower and southern wall we excavated more that twenty large white gravestones, inscribed in Arabic on both sides. They obviously had been taken from a demolished Islamic mosque. The area overlooked in the Jin River and...1984, Zhuang Weiji, quotee, Jews in Old China: Studies by Chinese Scholars, Hippocrene Books, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 147
- Wang Feng and I made our way to the world’s former greatest harbour. It is to the west of the city on the Jin River, and far enough inland from Quanzhou Bay to be reasonably safe from typhoons.2010, Tim Mackintosh-Smith, “China: To the Mosque of the Phoenix”, in Landfalls: On the Edge of Islam from Zanzibar to the Alhambra, John Murray, published 2011, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 200
- Synonyms:
- Jinshui
- A prefecture of imperial China centered on Linfen, Shanxi.
- Former name of Linfen as the seat of the prefecture.
- An realm in early-10th century Shaanxi loyal to the Tang after their overthrow by the Later Liang.
- The Later Jin, a short-lived empire in 10th-century Shaanxi; the 930s and '40s, the era of this empire.
- Synonyms:
- Fujianese river, prefecture & its seat
- Synonym of Shi: the dynasty which ruled this empire.
- Synonyms:
- Shi
- A Chinese dialect family (code cjy) spoken by about 45 million people in Shanxi and adjacent provinces.
- Synonyms:
- Jin Chinese, Jinese, Shanxinese, Shanxi dialect
Proper noun (2) capitalized: Jin
Jin
Proper noun (3) capitalized: Jin
Jin
- A Chinese surname, given 29th among the Hundred Family Surnames.
- A prefecture of imperial China centered on Ankang, Shaanxi.
- Former name of Ankang as the seat of the prefecture.
- An empire in northern China (AD 1115–1234) established by an invasion of Liao by the Wanyan Jurchens and overthrown by an invasion of the Mongols.
- Synonym of Wanyan: the dynasty which ruled this empire.
- Synonyms:
- Wanyan
- Synonym of Jurchen: the Tungusic people who ruled this empire.
- Synonyms:
- Jurchen
- The 12th to early 13th century, the era during which the Wanyan clan were the legitimate emperors of northern China.
- Synonym of Qing: the Chinese empire, dynasty, and era, (particularly) during the years 1616 to 1636, prior to the formal declaration of the Qing.
Proper noun (4) capitalized: Jin
Jin
- A river (錦江) in Jiangxi and Guangdong provinces in China, emptying into the Bei or North River.
- A river (錦江) in Sichuan Province, China, emptying into the Min River.
- A river (錦江 (贛江支流)) in Jiangxi Province, China, emptying into the Gan River.
- A prefecture of imperial China centered on Luyang, Hunan.
- Former name of Luyang as the seat of the prefecture.
Proper noun (5) capitalized: Jin
Jin
Proper noun (6) capitalized: Jin
Jin
Proper noun (7) capitalized: Jin
Jin
Synonyms of jin
Forms of jin
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | jins |
| plural | jin |
| Proper noun | |
| alternative form | Chin |
| alternative form | Kin |
Origin of jin
From Japanese 神 (jin).
The atonal Hanyu Pinyin romanization of the Mandarin pronunciation of Chinese 晉 /晋 (Jìn), adopted as the name of a river in Shanxi in antiquity. As a Zhou state, from the renaming of the marchland Tang (唐) by its second marquis Ji Xie when he relocated to the Jin River c. 1000 BC. As a surname, principally from the Zhou state and its region in China. As an empire and dynastic name, from Sima Yan's status as prince of Jin under the preceding Wei Empire. As a river in Fujian, named for the empire, which settled its banks with colonizers from China's Central Plains. As a dialect, from 晉語／晋语 (Jìnyǔ), from the region of the former Zhou state.
From Korean 진(晉) (jin).
Words formed from jin
- Jinese
- Jin Chinese
- Jinhan
Phrases with jin
Questions about jin
- What does jin mean?
- Jin means a portion of dead wood on a branch or at the top of the trunk of a bonsai tree, whether formed naturally or deliberately to suggest age and hardship.
- What is jin the alternative spelling of?
- Jin is the alternative spelling of jinn.
- What part of speech is jin?
- Jin can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce jin?
- Jin is pronounced /d͡ʒɪn/.
- What is the plural of jin?
- The plural of jin is jins.
Words near jin in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: jin (page history and authors); Jin (page history and authors); jinn (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: “jin.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/jin. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.