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Pinyin

Pinyin

1 6.5
A way to show how to pronounce Mandarin using Latin letters
  • noun
  • /ˈpɪnˌjɪn/
  • Specialized
: pinyin
  • The teacher explained that Pinyin helps us learn how to pronounce Chinese characters using the Latin alphabet.
  • Pinyin system

Examples

  • The names must be submitted in Chinese pinyin, which is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into Latin script, and the significance of the name must be included to be considered.

    Blog text (5)
  • It is somewhat difficult to imagine Westerners getting tattoos consisting of Mandarin words written in hanyu pinyin.

    Blog text (26)
  • In contrast to the teaching method in Hong Kong, the Pinyin system is used in Mainland China to teach new characters.

    Academic text (2013)
  • Pinyin is printed above a character in early primary-grade textbooks.

    Academic text (2013)
  • In the following documents, "Beijing University" is used, although the professors of the university voted to stay "Peking University" when the PRC imposed the "pinyin" system nationwide.

    Academic text (1990)
  • Pinyin is an alphabetic script that represents the pronunciation of spoken Chinese and can be regarded as a Romanization system of Mandarin Chinese.

    Academic text (2013)
  • The village is about 10 km northeast of the town of Douliou (Pinyin spelling) / Touliu (Wade-Giles spelling).

    Blog text (6)
  • In Chinese language classes, students often practice writing words in Pinyin before learning the characters.

  • You can use Pinyin to communicate the pronunciation of Mandarin words when typing in English.

Synonyms

Hanyu Pinyin
vsPinyin
  • Specialized
1 6.3

A way to write Mandarin Chinese sounds using Latin letters

is the shorter, common name used for that same system

Compounds

Hanyu Pinyin
  • Specialized
1 6.3

A way to write Mandarin Chinese sounds using Latin letters

Surface Forms

Pinyin singular
Pinyins plural

Etymology

Pinyin comes from the Chinese words pīn 'to spell' and yīn 'sound', so it literally means 'spell sound'. That's why Pinyin is the standard way to show Mandarin pronunciation with Latin letters, helping learners read and say words correctly.