DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

國家元首

简国家元首 · 繁國家元首

Mandarin · pinyin guó jiā yuán shǒu

head of state

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

國: Look up this written character
家: jiā · house, home, residence; family
元: yuán · first; dollar; origin; head
首: shǒu · head; first; leader, chief; a poem; Kangxi radical 185
国: guó · nation, country, nation-state

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

2–1–2–3 · guo2 jia1 yuan2 shou3

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

4character links

Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗

Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.

Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

國家元首 · find source passages ↗ · 国家元首 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 2 senses

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

noun

head of state
head of state — (Malaysia, specifically) Yang di-Pertuan Agong

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack