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# oriental

«oriental» in Mova's school dictionary: **From or to do with the countries of East Asia, like…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

adjective (oriental; Oriental); noun (an Oriental — old-fashioned, offensive)

### meaning for a pupil

1) (old-fashioned) From or to do with the countries of East Asia, like China, Japan and Korea. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/oriental/#m1)

2) Used in some fixed names for things, like "oriental rug" or "Oriental Shorthair" (a cat breed). [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/oriental/#m2)

3) From or to do with the wider East, such as India, Persia or Arabia. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/oriental/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

Seen in old books and in names of objects and animals (oriental rugs, the oriental pratincole bird). Today, describing people as "Oriental" is old-fashioned and can be offensive; people prefer "Asian", "East Asian" or the country, such as "Chinese" or "Korean".

### examples

- The museum had a room of oriental rugs. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/oriental/#x1)
- Old maps called East Asia "the Orient". [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/oriental/#x2)
- In the old book, the market sold "oriental spices". [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/oriental/#x3)
- The Oriental Shorthair is a slim cat breed. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/oriental/#x4)
- We say "East Asian food" rather than "oriental food" now. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/oriental/#x5)
- Calling people "Oriental" is old-fashioned and can be hurtful. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/oriental/#x6)
- He is well read, a remarkable Oriental scholar, and has a good judgment. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/oriental/#x7)

### note

Use with care: for people, say "Asian", "East Asian" or name the country. In US law the word was removed from federal laws in 2016. In names of objects it may still appear.

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «oriental» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/oriental/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.