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普通話

简普通话 · 繁普通話

Mandarin · pinyin pǔ tōng huà

Putonghua; standard Mandarin

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Characters in this entry

普: pǔ · universal, general, widespread
通: tōng · pass through; common; communicate
話: huà · speech, talk, language; dialect
话: huà · speech, talk, language; dialect

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

3–1–4 · pu3 tong1 hua4

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Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 3 senses · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

pou2 tung1 waa2

Cantonese word readings for 普通話. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

noun

common language
(chiefly Mainland China, recently in Hong Kong) Standard Mandarin Chinese; Standard Chinese
(usually in contrast with 國語／国语 (guóyǔ, “Taiwanese Mandarin”)) Mandarin as spoken in Mainland China; Putonghua

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

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