DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

電話

简电话 · 繁電話

Mandarin · pinyin diàn huà

telephone
Classifier: 部 bù
phone call
Classifier: 通 tōng
phone number

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

電: Look up this written character
話: huà · speech, talk, language; dialect
电: diàn · electricity; electric; lightning
话: huà · speech, talk, language; dialect

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

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

4–4 · dian4 hua4

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

3character links2source references

Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗

Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.

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.

電話 · find source passages ↗ · 电话 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

Compare dictionary sources Rime · Wiktionary

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

din6 waa2

Cantonese word readings for 電話. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

CanCLID contributors · CC BY 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

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

noun

(countable) telephone; phone (Classifier: 部 m c)
(countable) telephone call; phone call; call (Classifier: 通 m mn; 個／个 m c)
(colloquial) telephone number; phone number; number

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

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack