Bei·jing  (b āj ĭng ) also Pe·king (p ēk ĭng , p ā-)
Share:
The capital of China, in the northeast part of the country. It served as Kublai Khan's capital (13th century) and the capital of the Ming and Qing dynasties (1421-1911). From 1928 to 1949 it was known as Peiping. It is a major commercial and industrial center and the political, educational, and cultural center of the country.
Usage Note: Although some people pronounce the capital of China as (bāzhĭng), with a (zh) sound in place of the (j) sound, the pronunciation with the (j) sound is a much better approximation of the Chinese pronunciation. In fact, most people who speak Chinese would consider the (zh) pronunciation to be incorrect. |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2020 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices
Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:
Indo-European Roots
Semitic Roots
The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.
This website is best viewed in Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, or Safari. Some characters in pronunciations and etymologies cannot be displayed properly in Internet Explorer.