Nanking

[nan-king; Chinese nahn-king]

noun Older Spelling.

Nanjing.

Nanjing

or Nan·ching, Nan·king

[nahn-jing]

noun Pinyin.

a port in and the capital of Jiangsu province, in E China, on the Chang Jiang: a former capital of China.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for nanking

Contemporary Examples of nanking

The Rape of Nanking alone had seen three hundred thousand casualties.
How to Hide a Famine with Ping-Pong
Nicholas Griffin
January 9, 2014
Often called “the rape of Nanking,” this traumatic wartime incident evokes visceral nationalist sentiments among many Chinese.
Christian Bale Filmed Being Attacked by Chinese Guards
Melinda Liu
December 16, 2011

Historical Examples of nanking

A little north of Nanking are located two of the Ming tombs.
Travels in the Far East
Ellen Mary Hayes Peck
He captured Nanking, and the rebellion was suppressed in 1865.
Four Young Explorers
Oliver Optic
The result was evident from the first, and the war ended with the peace of Nanking in 1842.
Four Young Explorers
Oliver Optic
He was about ready to go to America to school when he had completed his work at Nanking.
Flash-lights from the Seven Seas
William L. Stidger
Yet the capture of Nanking was put off until the last act of all.
The Life of Gordon, Volume I
Demetrius Charles Boulger

British Dictionary definitions for nanking

Nanjing

Nanking (ˈnænˈkɪŋ) or Nan-ching

noun

a port in E central China, capital of Jiangsu province, on the Yangtze River: capital of the Chinese empire and a literary centre from the 14th to 17th centuries; capital of Nationalist China (1928–37); site of a massacre of about 300 000 civilians by the invading Japanese army in 1937; university (1928). Pop: 2 806 000 (2005 est)

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for nanking

Nanking

city in China, literally "southern capital," from nan "south" + jing "capital."

nanking in Culture

Nanking

[(nan-king, nahn-jing)]

See Nanjing.

Nanjing

City in eastern China on the Yangtze River, northeast of Shanghai; an industrial and transportation center.

Note

China's imperial capital on several occasions, it was made capital of the Republic of China by Sun Yat-sen in 1912 after the Chinese Revolution, by Nationalist forces of Chiang Kai-shek from 1928 to 1937, and again from 1946 to 1949.

Note

During the Second Sino-Japanese War in the 1930s, Nanjing was the scene of a Japanese massacre (the Rape of Nanking) and became the seat of a puppet regime established by the Japanese.