Ding

From the pinyin romanization of the Mandarin pronunciation of Chinese 定州 (“Orderly Prefecture”)

Ding

1. (historical Chinese geography) A prefecture of imperial China within present-day Hebei under the Northern Wei, Sui, and Tang dynasties, with its seat at Dingzhou.
2. (historical Chinese geography) A county of Republican China in Hebei Province.

• (prefecture): Dingzhou
• (county): Dingxian

From Old High German ding, from Proto-Germanic *þingą. Compare Low German ding, Dutch ding, English thing, Danish ting.

• IPA^(key): /dɪŋ/ (most areas)
• IPA^(key): /dɪŋk/ (chiefly northern Germany)

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Ding n (genitive Dings or Dinges, plural Dinge or Dinger)

1. thing
2. (mildly disrespectful) thing; girl; boy (young person)
3. (dated) Thing (historic Germanic council)

• The plural Dinge means things in general: Werte sind wichtiger als Dinge. – "Values are more important than things." It also means different kinds of things: Nahrung, Kleidung und Wohnung sind Dinge, die jeder braucht. – "Food, clothes and a home are things that everyone needs."

• The plural Dinger means several items of one sort of thing: Was sind das hier für kleine rote Dinger? – "What are these little red things?" In formal style, this sense is preferably covered by Gegenstände rather than Dinger. The plural Dinger is also used for the sense “young person”.

• (historic council): Thing

• dinglich
• Dings, Dingens, Dingsbums, Dingsda, Dingenskirchen (placeholder nouns used like English thingy and whatshisname)

• Sache
• Zeug
• Gegenstand

Compare German Ding, Dutch ding, English thing, Swedish ting,

Ding n (plural Dinge)

1. thing

• Dingel