standard form (of a Chinese character) / plain font style (as opposed to bold or italic) / printed style (as opposed to cursive) / (Tw) traditional (i.e. unsimplified) characters
简体
jiǎn tǐ
simplified form of Chinese characters, as opposed to traditional form 繁體|繁体[fan2 ti3]
Chinese set expression, typically of 4 characters, often alluding to a story or historical quotation / idiom / proverb / saying / adage / CL:條|条[tiao2],本[ben3],句[ju4]
字典
zì diǎn
Chinese character dictionary (containing entries for single characters, contrasted with a 詞典|词典[ci2 dian3], which has entries for words of one or more characters) / (coll.) dictionary / CL:本[ben3]
五笔
wǔ bǐ
abbr. of 五筆字型|五笔字型, five stroke input method for Chinese characters by numbered strokes, invented by Wang Yongmin 王永民 / in 1983
the character 8 or 八 / birthdate characters used in fortune-telling
乱码
luàn mǎ
mojibake (nonsense characters displayed when software fails to render text according to its intended character encoding)
错别字
cuò bié zì
incorrectly written or mispronounced characters
注音
zhù yīn
to indicate the pronunciation of Chinese characters using Pinyin or Bopomofo etc / phonetic notation / (specifically) Bopomofo (abbr. for 注音符號|注音符号[zhu4 yin1 fu2 hao4])
童趣
tóng qù
qualities that delight children (e.g. bold colors in a picture, anthropomorphized characters in a TV show, the physical challenge of playground equipment)
音译
yīn yì
transliteration (rendering phonetic value, e.g. of English words in Chinese characters) / characters giving phonetic value of Chinese word or name (when the correct characters may be unknown) / transcription (linguistics) / to transcribe phonetic symbols
五笔字型
wǔ bǐ zì xíng
five stroke input method for Chinese characters by numbered strokes, invented by Wang Yongmin 王永民 / in 1983
五笔输入法
wǔ bǐ shū rù fǎ
five stroke input method for Chinese characters by numbered strokes, invented by Wang Yongmin 王永民 / in 1983
variant of 人[ren2] / "person" radical in Chinese characters (Kangxi radical 10), occurring in 兒, 兀, 兄 / etc
白文
bái wén
the text of an annotated book / an unannotated edition of a book / intagliated characters (on a seal)
碟仙
dié xiān
form of divination similar to the Ouija board, in which participants use their forefingers to push a small saucer over a sheet of paper inscribed with numerous Chinese characters
"house on a cliff" radical in Chinese characters (Kangxi radical 53), occurring in 店, 序, 底 / etc
六书
liù shū
Six Methods of forming Chinese characters, according to Han dictionary Shuowen 說文|说文 / - namely, two primary methods: 象形 / (pictogram), 指事 / (ideogram), two compound methods: 會意|会意 / (combined ideogram), 形聲|形声 / (ideogram plus phonetic), and two transfer methods: 假借 / (loan), 轉注|转注 / (transfer)
五刑
wǔ xíng
imperial five punishments of feudal China, up to Han times: tattooing characters on the forehead 墨[mo4], cutting off the nose 劓[yi4], amputation of one or both feet 刖[yue4], castration 宮|宫[gong1], execution 大辟[da4 pi4] / Han dynasty onwards: whipping 笞[chi1], beating the legs and buttocks with rough thorns 杖[zhang4], forced labor 徒[tu2], exile or banishment 流[liu2], capital punishment 死[si3]
反切
fǎn qiè
traditional system expressing the phonetic value of a Chinese character using two other characters, the first for the initial consonant, the second for the rhyme and tone
(bound form) a person in servitude / low-ranking subordinate / (bound form) to be subordinate to / (bound form) clerical script (the style of characters intermediate between ancient seal and modern regular characters)
second of the ten Heavenly Stems 十天干[shi2 tian1 gan1] / second in order / letter "B" or Roman "II" in list "A, B, C", or "I, II, III" etc / second party (in legal contract, usually 乙方[yi3 fang1], as opposed to 甲方[jia3 fang1]) / ethyl / bent / winding / radical in Chinese characters (Kangxi radical 5) / ancient Chinese compass point: 105°
old term for the right-falling stroke in Chinese characters (e.g. the last stroke of 大[da4]), now called 捺[na4] / sound made by birds (onom.) / (literary) to dismember (form of punishment) / to spread
"speech" or "words" radical in Chinese characters (Kangxi radical 149) / see also 言字旁[yan2 zi4 pang2]
小强
Xiǎo Qiáng
(slang) cockroach ("Little Qiang" was originally the name given to a dead cockroach that had supposedly been a pet of the lead character in the 1993 Hong Kong comedy movie "Flirting Scholar". Subsequently, it came to be used as a name for any cockroach, and also for characters in film and television who are seemingly indestructible or repeatedly resurrected.)
"person" radical in Chinese characters (Kangxi radical 9)
不一致字
bù yī zhì zì
(orthography) inconsistent words (e.g. "through", "bough" and "rough", where "-ough" is not pronounced the same in each case) / inconsistent characters (e.g. 流[liu2], 梳[shu1] and 毓[yu4], which are pronounced differently from each other even though they all have the same notional phonetic component)
"tiger" radical in Chinese characters (Kangxi radical 141) / see also 虎字頭|虎字头[hu3 zi4 tou2]
一致字
yī zhì zì
(orthography) consistent words (e.g. "dean", "bean", and "lean", where "-ean" is pronounced the same in each case) / consistent characters (e.g. 搖|摇[yao2], 遙|遥[yao2] and 謠|谣[yao2], which share a phonetic component that reliably indicates that the pronunciation of the character is yáo)
"cover" radical in Chinese characters (Kangxi radical 14), occurring in 軍|军[jun1], 冠[guan1] etc, known as 禿寶蓋|秃宝盖[tu1 bao3 gai4] or 平寶蓋|平宝盖[ping2 bao3 gai4]
yī