Chinese rooms

A form of Chinese room — The setting of a thought experiment in which a person with no understanding of the Chinese language is locked in a room with a set of rules allowing them to produce answers to questions in Chinese. It aims to demonstrate that running a program cannot give a computer system a "mind", "understanding" or "consciousness", regardless of how intelligent it may appear.

Meanings

noun
  1. pluralplural of Chinese room
Cite this entry
APA

Chinese rooms. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Chinese%20rooms

MLA

“Chinese rooms.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Chinese%20rooms. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Chinese rooms,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Chinese%20rooms.

Source: Chinese rooms on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.