Wu-han

A form of Wuhan — A subprovincial city, the provincial capital of Hubei, China.

Meanings

Wu-han1

proper noun
  1. alternativeAlternative spelling of Wuhan.

    At the moment much industry of the Wu-han Cities is at a standstill.

    1948 March, W. Robert Moore, “Along the Yangtze, Main Street of China”, in National Geographic Magazine, volume XCIII, number 3, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 341
    4 more examples

    My flight was going to Wu-han and Nan-ning and thence to Hanoi, which caused a certain interest; it is not every day that British passports go to North Vietnam. My immigration official was suitably inscrutable; he took the thing as no great drama (which it certainly was to me), rather did he appear to regard the trip as a quaint eccentricity.

    1965, James Cameron, Here is Your Enemy, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, pages 16–17

    Logically, coal should have been imported from the P’ing-ting-shan mine which is far closer to the Wu-han market.

    1967, Yuan-li Wu, The Spatial Economy of Communist China, Frederick A. Praeger Publishers, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 192

    The population is mostly concentrated in the eastern lowlands where the Han river joins the Yangtze at the great tri-city metropolis of Wu-han (q.v.).

    1968, “HUPEH”, in Encyclopedia Britannica, volume 11, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 902, column 1

    The Wu-han cities are physically separated by the rivers: Han-k'ou and Han-yang are located on the left bank of the Yangtze and north and south of the Han Shui, respectively; Wu-ch'ang lies on the right bank of the Yangtze.

    1975, Wu-han (Briefs on Selected PRC Cities), Central Intelligence Agency, page 2

Wu-Han2

proper noun
  1. alternativeAlternative spelling of Wuhan.

    The main forces of the Wu-Han armies were concentrated on the line extending from Yanglo to Hsiaokwan by way of Huangpi.

    1929 April 6, “Hankow in Hands of Gen. Chiang Kai-shek”, in The China Weekly Review, volume XLVIII, number 6, →OCLC, page 226, column 1
    2 more examples

    A stream called the Han River separates Hankow from Hanyang, and these two towns, together with Wu-chang across the Yangtse, are known as the Wu-Han cities. The steel mills, which are often referred to as the "Hankow mills," are at Hanyang.

    1926, Lucian Swift Kirtland, Finding the Worth While in the Orient, New York: Robert M. McBride & Company, →OCLC, page 192

    The other day I learned from a newspaper report that practically all of the 200 Communists who had been executed in Wu-Han were twenty-five or below and that the majority of them had been girls.

    1969, Dun J. Li, editor, The Road to Communism: China Since 1912, Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 39

Origin

Wu-han · proper noun

  1. Mandarin武漢 /武汉
  2. EnglishWu-han

From the Wade-Giles romanization of the Mandarin 武漢 /武汉 (Wu³-han⁴).

Full word history & related roots →

Wu-Han · proper noun

  1. Mandarin武漢 /武汉
  2. EnglishWu-Han

Borrowed from Mandarin 武漢 /武汉 (Wǔ Hàn) Wade–Giles romanization Wu³-Han⁴.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

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

MLA

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

Chicago

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

Source: Wu-han on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.