Xiongnu
/ˈʃjɒŋnuː/noun
Xiongnu is a noun meaning “An ancient nomadic-based people that formed a state or confederation north of the agriculture-based empire of the Han dynasty” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled X-I-O-N-G-N-U, and it appears about once in every 31 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does Xiongnu mean?
noun
- 1
An ancient nomadic-based people that formed a state or confederation north of the agriculture-based empire of the Han dynasty.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce Xiongnu?
- /ˈʃjɒŋnuː/
- /ˈʃɒŋnuː/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Forms of Xiongnu
- Hsiung-nu
- Hsiung-Nu
- Hiong-Nu
- Hiong-nu
- Hung-nu
- Hunnu
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is Xiongnu?
Xiongnu appears about once in every 31 million words in written English, the 169,822nd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Xiongnu in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense ancient nomadic-based people:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | Xiongnu |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does Xiongnu come from?
Borrowed from the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of Mandarin 匈奴 (Xiōngnú). Possibly a doublet of Hun; their relationship to the Huns is disputed.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).