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a A b B c C d D e E f F g G h H i I j J k K l L m M n N o O p P q Q r R s S t T u U v V w W x X y Y z Z

Appendices • Abbreviations • Thesaurus • Rhymes • Frequency lists • Phrasebooks Welcome to the English language Wiktionary, a collaborative project to produce a free-content multilingual dictionary. Designed as the lexical companion to Wikipedia, the encyclopaedia project, Wiktionary has grown beyond a standard dictionary and now includes a thesaurus, a rhyme guide, phrase books, language statistics and extensive appendices. We aim to include not only the definition of a word, but also enough information to really understand it. Thus etymologies, pronunciations, sample quotations, synonyms, antonyms and translations are included. Wiktionary is a wiki, which means that you can edit it, and all the content is dual-licensed under both the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License as well as the GNU Free Documentation License. Before you contribute, you may wish to read through some of our Help pages, and bear in mind that we do things quite differently from other wikis. In particular we have strict layout conventions and inclusion criteria. Learn how to start a page, how to edit entries, experiment in the sandbox and visit our Community Portal to see how you can participate in the development of Wiktionary. , Word of the day for August 22 gangly adj

1. Tall and thin, especially so as to cause physical awkwardness.

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Latin: a A b B c C d D e E f F g G h H i I j J k K l L m M n N o O p P q Q r R s S t T u U v V w W x X y Y z Z Accented: à-ç è-ý À-Ü Āā-Řř Śś-Žž Greek: Α-Κ Λ-Σ Τ-Ω α-θ ι-ρ σ-ω Ἀἀ-Ῥῥ Cyrillic: А-Н О-Я а-б в-г д-з и-к л-м н-о п р-с т-ц ч-я(-ә) Armenian: Ա-դ ե-ճ մ-ֆ Hebrew: ‏‏א-ו‎ ז-ל‎ מ-צ‎ ק-ת‎ Arabic: ‏‏ا-ب‎ ت-س‎ ش-م‎ ن-ی‎ Khmer: ក – ឱ Japanese: ぁ-げ こ-ぱ ひ-ケ コ-ヶ Han Characters: 一 促 冱 卙 哪 圱 天 存 崃 弿 愷 捇 新 杁 Korean: ㄱ 가 나 다 라 마 바 사 아 자 차 카 타 파 하

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b. ^ Information for mainland China only. Hong Kong, Macau and territories under the jurisdiction of the Republic of China, commonly known as Taiwan, are excluded.

c. ^ 9,598,086 km excludes all disputed territories. 9,640,821 km Includes PRC-administered area (Aksai Chin and Trans-Karakoram Tract, both territories claimed by India), Taiwan is not included.

The People's Republic of China (PRC), commonly known as China, is a country in East Asia. It is the most populous state in the world with over 1.3 billion people, about one in five humans. China is ruled by the Communist Party of China under a single-party system, and has jurisdiction over 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four directly administered municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing), and two highly autonomous special administrative regions (SARs) (Hong Kong and Macau). The PRC's capital is Beijing.

At about 9.6 million square kilometres (3.7 million square miles), the PRC is the world's third- or fourth-largest country by total area, and the second largest by land area. Its landscape is diverse, with forest steppes and deserts (the Gobi and Taklamakan) in the dry north near Mongolia and Russia's Siberia, and subtropical forests in the wet south close to Vietnam, Laos, and Burma. The terrain in the west is rugged and at high altitude, with the Himalayas and the Tian Shan mountain ranges forming China's natural borders with India and Central Asia. In contrast, mainland China's eastern seaboard is low-lying and has a 14,500-kilometre long coastline bounded on the southeast by the South China Sea and on the east by the East China Sea beyond which lies Taiwan, Korea, and Japan.

The ancient Chinese civilization—one of the world's earliest—flourished in the fertile basin of the Yellow River which flows through the North China Plain. For more than 4,000 years, China's political system was based on hereditary monarchies (also known as dynasties). The first of these dynasties was the Xia (approx 2000BC) but it was the later Qin Dynasty that first unified China in 221 BC. The last dynasty, the Qing, ended in 1911 with the founding of the Republic of China (ROC) by the Nationalist Kuomintang (KMT). The first half of the 20th century saw China plunged into a period of disunity and civil wars that divided the country into two main political camps – the Kuomintang and the communists. Major hostilities ended in 1949, when the People's Republic of China was established in mainland China by the victorious communists. The KMT-led Republic of China government retreated to Taipei, its jurisdiction now limited to Taiwan and several outlying islands. As of today, the PRC is still involved in disputes with the ROC over issues of sovereignty and the political status of Taiwan.

Since the introduction of market-based economic reforms in 1978, China has become the world's 5th fastest growing economy, and is the fastest growing G-20 major economy the world's largest exporter and third largest importer of goods, although claims that China is the second largest importer are largely based on a statement by Li Keqiang in a January 2010 NY Times article. Rapid industrialization has reduced its poverty rate from 53% in 1981 to 8% in 2001. However, the PRC is now faced with a number of other problems including a rapidly aging population due to the one-child policy, a widening rural-urban income gap, and environmental degradation. Moreover, China has been criticized for its human rights violations, and for having a problematic record of interfering with press freedom.

China is a major power and the world's third largest economy nominally (or second largest by PPP) and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, as well as being a member of multilateral organizations including the WTO, G-20 and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. China is a recognized nuclear weapons state and has the world's largest standing army with the second-largest defense budget. China has been characterized as a potential superpower by some academics, military analysts, and public policy and economics analysts.