Meaning of 外交官
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- diplomat
How to use 外交官
外交官 is a neutral, fairly formal word for a person who works in diplomacy, often at an embassy. It is used for job titles and in news. Example: 她的爸爸是外交官。(Tā de bàba shì wàijiāoguān.) Her dad is a diplomat.
Break it into 外交 (wàijiāo, foreign relations) plus 官 (guān, official). 外 (wài) means outside, 交 (jiāo) means to deal with, so a 外交官 is an official who deals with the outside world.
Common mistake: Learners sometimes say 外交 (wàijiāo) alone when they mean the person. 外交 is the field of diplomacy, and you need 官 (guān) or 人员 (rényuán) to refer to people. Also keep 官 (guān, first tone) separate from 管 (guǎn, to manage), which looks and sounds similar.
外交官 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Stroke order for each character
Open a character for its meaning, components and more words.
外 wài · outside · 5 strokes
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- 2
- 3
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- 5
交 jiāo · to hand over · 6 strokes
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- 2
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- 4
- 5
- 6
官 guān · government official · 8 strokes
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Related words
Words that share a character with 外交官.
| 外国 | wàiguó | foreign country |
| 国外 | guó wài | abroad; external (affairs) |
| 外边 | wàibian | outside; outer surface |
| 外语 | wàiyǔ | foreign language |
| 交给 | jiāo gěi | to give; to deliver; to hand over |
| 以外 | yǐwài | apart from; other than |
| 交通 | jiāotōng | to be connected; traffic |
| 交朋友 | jiāo péngyou | to make friends; (dialect) to start an affair with sb |
| 外卖 | wàimài | (of a restaurant) to provide a takeout or home delivery meal; takeout (business) |
| 公交车 | gōngjiāochē | public transport vehicle; town bus |
| 外地 | wàidì | parts of the country other than where one is |
| 外面 | wàimiàn | outside (also pr. [wai4 mian5] for this sense); surface |
Questions about 外交官
What does 外交官 mean?
外交官 (wàijiāoguān) means "diplomat" and is used as a noun.
How do you write 外交官?
外交官 is made of 3 characters: 外 (5 strokes), 交 (6 strokes), 官 (8 strokes). That is 19 strokes in total.
Is 外交官 an HSK word?
Yes. 外交官 is on the HSK 4 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
Can 外交官 be used to describe someone who is tactful, like in English?
Not usually. 外交官 refers to the actual job. To say someone is tactful, Chinese speakers more often say 很会说话 (hěn huì shuōhuà) or 有外交手腕 (yǒu wàijiāo shǒuwàn), meaning they have diplomatic skill.
What other words use 官 for officials?
官 (guān) appears in many job titles for officials, such as 法官 (fǎguān, judge) and 警官 (jǐngguān, police officer). Seeing 官 at the end of a word is a good hint that it names an official role.