Sino-tibetan

//ˌsaɪnəʊtɪˈbɛtən// adj

adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    the family of tonal languages spoken in eastern Asia wordnet
Adjective
  1. 1
    Of or relating to both China and Tibet. not-comparable

    "Sino-Tibetan relations are more complicated than the media portrays."

  2. 2
    Of the Sino-Tibetan languages, one of the major language families. not-comparable

    "Mandarin, Burmese, and Tibetan all belong to the Sino-Tibetan language family."

Synonyms

All synonyms
languagesiniticsino-tibetan languagetrans-himalayan

Example

More examples

"I adore Sino-Tibetan languages."

Etymology

In the linguistic sense, a calque of French sino-tibétain, coined in 1924 by Jean Przyluski. Przyluski and Gordon Luce then introduced the English equivalent Sino-Tibetan in 1931.

Related phrases

Proto-Sino-Tibetan

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.