Kunming

Kun·ming
K5U1N1M3I1N1G2
/kʊnˈmɪŋ/

proper noun

A prefecture-level city, the provincial capital of Yunnan, in southwestern China.

Less commonScrabble 14

Meanings

proper noun

alternative K'un-ming

  1. A prefecture-level city, the provincial capital of Yunnan, in southwestern China.

    Military movements are reported to be proceeding in the region of Kunming.

    1930 December 31 [1930 December 30], “Rebel Army Enters Yunnan.”, in Hongkong Daily Press, number 2260, page 9, column 4
    5 more examples

    The Minister of Commerce and Industry is pushing forward proposals for the development of mining, and has placed before the Cabinet a scheme for the division of the country into eight mining districts to be controlled by the Mining Supervision Bureau.[…]The fifth division will be Shensi, Kansu, and Singkiang^([sic – meaning Sinkiang]), with headquarters at Changan; the sixth will be Kwangtung, Kwangsi, and Fukien, with headquarters at Canton; the seventh will be Yunnan and Kweichow, with headquarters at Kunming, in Yunnan; and the eighth will be Szechuan alone, with headquarters at Chengtu.

    遠東時報

    1914 January, “China's Mining Districts”, in The Far Eastern Review [遠東時報], volume X, number 8, Shanghai; Manila, →OCLC, page 311, column 2

    Best known abroad are Free China’s two "back doors," the Burma Road and the Northwest Highway. The 960-mile road from Kunming to Lashio was a vast engineering feat and, after the outbreak of the Pacific war, China’s main hope for obtaining offensive armaments. In the last month before its closing it carried over 30,000 tons.

    1943, Hubert Freyn, Free China's New Deal, New York: Macmillan Company, →OCLC, page 63

    Last week's focus of the war in the Far East centered squarely upon this little railroad. Because it brings supplies to the Assam Valley airfields, whence they can be flown over the "Hump" to Kunming, it is a vital part of our only link with China.

    1944 April 24, “Trouble in Burma”, in Life, volume 16, number 17, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 25, column 1

    Hsiao-hua, who studied at a primary school at Kunming before he fled the mainland with his father, said he was often criticized by his classmates for his association with "bad elements." All school children on the Chinese mainland, he added, must do forced manual work and read "Quotations from Mao Tse-tung."

    1975 March 23, “Freedom at last for Wu & son”, in Free China Weekly, volume XVI, number 11, Taipei, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 1

    In some cases, over a hundred thousand men, women, and children could be seen building five-thousand-foot solid runways for huge bombers of a type not yet built in America. These fields were being built in places east of Kunming, places with strange-sounding names like Liuchow, Kweilin, Lingling, and Hengyang, names which would all too soon become quite familiar to hundred of American airmen.

    1980, Wanda Cornelius, Thayne Short, Ding Hao: America's Air War in China, 1937-1945, Gretna, Louisiana: Pelican Publishing Company, →ISBN, pages 94-95

Origin

  1. Mandarin昆明
  2. Mandarin昆明
  3. EnglishKunming

Borrowed from Mandarin 昆明 (Kūnmíng).

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Arabic كُونْمِينْج, كُونْمِينْغ
  • كُونْمِينْج (kunming)a prefecture-level city in southwestern China
  • كُونْمِينْغ (kunminḡ)a prefecture-level city in southwestern China
  • كُونْمِينْغ (kunming)a prefecture-level city in southwestern China
Bulgarian Кунми́н
  • Кунми́н (Kunmín)a prefecture-level city in southwestern China
Chinese Cantonese 昆明
  • 昆明 (kwan¹ ming⁴)a prefecture-level city in southwestern China
Chinese Mandarin 昆明
  • 昆明 (Kūnmíng)a prefecture-level city in southwestern China
Hebrew קונמינג
  • קונמינגa prefecture-level city in southwestern China
Hindi कुनमिंग
  • कुनमिंग (kunmiṅg)a prefecture-level city in southwestern China
Hungarian Kunming
  • Kunminga prefecture-level city in southwestern China
Japanese 昆明
  • 昆明 (Konmei)a prefecture-level city in southwestern China
Korean 쿤밍, 곤명
  • 쿤밍a prefecture-level city in southwestern China
  • 곤명 (Gonmyeong)a prefecture-level city in southwestern China
Portuguese Kunming
  • Kunminga prefecture-level city in southwestern China
Russian Куньми́н
  • Куньми́н (Kunʹmín)a prefecture-level city in southwestern China
Spanish Kunming
  • Kunminga prefecture-level city in southwestern China
Thai คุนหมิง
  • คุนหมิง (kunmĭng)a prefecture-level city in southwestern China
Ukrainian Куньмі́н
  • Куньмі́н (Kunʹmín)a prefecture-level city in southwestern China
Vietnamese Côn Minh
  • Côn Minha prefecture-level city in southwestern China

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with Kunming

All rhymes →
Cite this entry
APA

Kunming. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Kunming

MLA

“Kunming.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Kunming. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Kunming,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Kunming.

Source: Kunming on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.