noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A mythical Chinese hooved chimerical creature, said to appear in conjunction with the arrival of a sage.

   "...a red and gold textile with phoenixes in one row swooping towards qilins in the next amidst a densely foliated ground..."

Synonyms

All synonyms

kirinkirin

Example

More examples

"A qilin with a king too has no limit on its lifespan, but this illness alone admits of no remedy."

Etymology

From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of Mandarin 麒麟 (qílín). Doublet of kirin.

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