pinyin

[pin-yin]

noun

(sometimes initial capital letter)

1. a 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.

Pinyin

/ ˈpɪnˈjɪn /

noun

1. a system of romanized spelling developed in China in 1958: used to transliterate Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet

Word History and Origins

Origin of Pinyin¹

First recorded in 1960–65; Chinese (Mandarin) pīnyīn literally “phonetic spelling,” equivalent to pīn “arrange, classify” + yīn “sound, pronunciation”

Example Sentences

In an experiment with 35 native English-speaking adults, researchers tracked the brain activity of participants learning a miniature language called Mini Pinyin that is based on Mandarin but with similar grammatical rules to English.

From Science Daily

Half of the participants learned Mini Pinyin in the morning and then returned in the evening to have their memory tested.

From Science Daily

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

The city’s name is now spelled Nanjing under the pinyin romanization system.

From Seattle Times

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