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pinyin
pinyinnouna system for transliterating Chinese into the Latin alphabet: introduced in 1958 and adopted as the official system of romanization by the People's Republic of China in 1979.
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Pinyin
Pinyinnouna system of romanized spelling developed in China in 1958: used to transliterate Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet
pinyin
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of pinyin
First recorded in 1960–65; Chinese (Mandarin) pīnyīn literally “phonetic spelling,” equivalent to pīn “arrange, classify” + yīn “sound, pronunciation”
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The other half learned Mini Pinyin in the evening and then slept in the laboratory overnight while their brain activity was recorded.
From Science Daily • Dec. 5, 2024
But he said the attacks had connections to China including cryptography relying on Pinyin phonetic versions of Chinese language characters, as well as techniques that echoed previous attacks by the Chinese government.
From Reuters • Oct. 19, 2021
“Perhaps it was due to my time overseas, but I always envisaged Pinyin being useful to foreigners, too,” he told China Daily in 2009.
From Washington Post • Jan. 16, 2017
Zhou Youguang created the Pinyin system of Romanized Chinese, which vastly increased literacy in China and eased the agonies of foreigners studying the language.
From Seattle Times • Jan. 14, 2017
Until the advent of Pinyin, the most prevalent system was Wade-Giles, the work of two British diplomats in the late 19th century.
From New York Times • Jan. 14, 2017
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.