chinese-vocabulary-word-list-computer-internet

Alan Park Last updated: November 5, 2023

140+ Technical Terms in Chinese to Sound Like a Tech-savvy Native Speaker

Do you know how to say “tweet” in Chinese?

How about “email” or “blogger”?

Do you know the Chinese counterparts to YouTube, Google and Facebook?

Trust me when I say these terms will come in handy.

Once I reached a certain level of Chinese—enough to have general conversations with native speakers—I found myself unexpectedly searching for all kinds of social media and technology terms to get my point across.

So in this post, I’ll give you a list of over 140 technical terms in Chinese so you already have these words up your sleeve.

Types of Internet People
Famous Computer / Internet People
Internet sites
Things to Do and Types of Sites
Internet “Verbs”
Email
Computer Hardware
Computer Hardware Accessories
Mobile Computer Hardware
Mobile Devices
Mobile Device Related
iPhone
Browser Interface Terms
Technical Internet Terms

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

Types of Internet People

English	Chinese	Pinyin
Blogger	博主	bó zhŭ
Male tech geek who stays home all the time	宅男	zhái nán
Female tech geek who stays home all the time	宅女	zhái nǚ
Internet friend	网友	wǎng yǒu
Netizen	网络公民	wăng luò gōng mín
Human flesh search engine (not a person but the phenomenon)	人肉搜索	rén ròu sōu suŏ
Hacker	黑客	hēi kè
Venture capital (not a person, but venture capital itself)	风险投资	fēng xiǎn tóu zī
User	用户	yòng hù
Administrator	管理员	guăn lĭ yuán
Moderator	版主	bǎn zhǔ
Programmer	程序设计师	chéng xù shè jì shī
Computer programming (the activity not the person)	电脑编程	diàn năo biān chéng
Developer	开发人员	kāi fā rén yuán

Famous Computer / Internet People

English	Chinese	Pinyin
Alibaba founder	马云	mă yún
Baidu (China’s most populous search engine) founder	李彦红	lĭ yàn hóng
Former Microsoft and Google China CEO	李开复	lĭ kāi fù
Foxconn CEO	郭台铭	guō tái míng
Lenovo founder	柳传志	liŭ chuán zhì
Tencent CEO	马化腾	mǎ huà téng

Internet sites

English	Chinese	Pinyin
The internet	互联网	hù lián wăng
Baidu (Chinese Google - most popular search engine)	百度	băi dù
Sina (Chinese Yahoo)	新浪网	xīn làng wǎng
Google	谷歌	gǔ gē
Kaixinwang (social networking site, mainly for professionals)	开心网	kāi xīn wăng
Renrenwang (social networking site, mainly for students)	人人网	rén rén wǎng
Weibo (means "microblogging" and is like Chinese Twitter)	微博	wēi bó
Youku (Chinese Youtube)	优酷	yōu kù
QQ (Chinese instant messaging program)	QQ
Taobao (Chinese eBay - site for online shopping)	淘宝	táo băo
Search engine	搜索引擎	sōu suŏ yĭn qíng

Things to Do and Types of Sites

English	Chinese	Pinyin
Social network	社交网络	shè jiāo wăng luò
E-commerce	电子商务	diàn zĭ shāng wù
Podcast	播客	bō kè
Blog	博客	bó kè
Webpage	网页	wăng yè
Chartroom	聊天室	liáo tiān shì
Internet cafe	网吧	wăng bā
BBS	论坛	lùn tán
Computer game	电脑游戏	diàn năo yóu xì
Video game	电玩	diàn wán
Internet game	网游（网络游戏）	wǎng yóu
Internet shopping	网购（网上购物）	wǎng gòu

Internet “Verbs”

English	Chinese	Pinyin
Tweet (from Weibo, China's Twitter)	发微博	fā wēi bó
A post (on a blog)	帖子	tiě zi
Online	上线	shàng xiàn
Offline	离线	lí xiàn
Comment	评论	píng lùn
Reply	回复	huí fù
Accept	接收	jiē shōu
Decline	拒绝	jù jué
Register	注册	zhù cè
Login /sign in	登录	dēng lù
Download	下载	xià zăi
Upload	上传	shàng chuán
Click	点击	diăn jī
Double-click	双击	shuāng jī

Email

English	Chinese	Pinyin
Inbox	邮箱	yóu xiāng
An email	邮件	yóu jiàn
To send an email	发邮件	fā yóu jiàn
To forward	转发	zhuǎn fā
To CC	抄送	chāo sòng
Spam	垃圾邮件	lā jī yóu jiàn
File	文件	wén jiàn
Document	文件	wén jiàn
Access	接入	jiē rù
Attachment	附件	fù jiàn
Chart	表格	biăo gé
Virus	病毒	bìng dú

Computer Hardware

English	Chinese	Pinyin
Hardware	硬件	yìng jiàn
Computer	电脑	diàn năo
Screen	屏幕	píng mù
Keyboard	键盘	jiàn pán
Key (on a keyboard)	键	jiàn
Desktop computer	台式机	tái shì jī
Mouse	鼠标	shŭ biāo
Monitor	显示器	xiǎn shì qì
CPU	CPU
Design	设计	shè jì

Computer Hardware Accessories

English	Chinese	Pinyin
Software	软件	ruăn jiàn
Speakers	音响	yīn xiăng
Microphone	话筒	huà tŏng
AC adapter	AC适配器	AC shì pèi qì
Disc	碟	dié
Printer	打印机	dă yìn jī
Button	按钮	àn niǔ
Fax	传真	chuán zhēn
Scanner	扫描仪	săo miáo yí
External hard drive	移动硬盘	yí dòng yìng pán
USB drive	U盘	U pán

Mobile Computer Hardware

English	Chinese	Pinyin
Laptop	笔记本	bǐ jì běn
Touchpad	触摸板	chù mō băn
USB Interfaces	USB接口	USB jiē kǒu

Mobile Devices

English	Chinese	Pinyin
Mobile device	移动设备	yí dòng shè bèi
Device	设备	shè bèi
Smartphone	智能手机	zhì néng shŏu jī
Touchscreen	触摸屏	chù mō píng
Camera	摄像头	shè xiàng tóu
Earphones	耳机	ěr jī
Headphones	头戴式耳机	tóu dài shì ěr jī
Battery	电池	diàn chí
Charger	充电器	chōng diàn qì
Data cable	数据线	shù jù xiàn
Memory card	存储卡	cún chŭ kă
Slots	插槽	chā cáo

Mobile Device Related

English	Chinese	Pinyin
Text message	短信	duǎn xìn
To send a text message	发短信	fā duǎn xìn
Signal	信号	xìn hào
Power	电源	diàn yuán
Wireless	无线	wú xiàn
Data	数据	shù jù
WiFi	无线局域网	wú xiàn jú yù wăng
Bluetooth	蓝牙	lán yá

iPhone

English	Chinese	Pinyin
Swipe (on a iphone)	滑动	huá dòng
iPhone app	iPhone 应用程序	iPhone yìng yòng chéng xù
iPhone app (another way to say it)	iPhone 应用软件	iPhone yìng yòng ruǎn jiàn
App store	应用商店	yìng yòng shāng diàn
Apple store	苹果零售店	píng guŏ líng shòu diàn
Case	保护壳	băo hù ké
Unlock	解锁	jiě suǒ

Browser Interface Terms

English	Chinese	Pinyin
Desktop	桌面	zhuō miàn
Homepage	主页	zhŭ yè
Menu bar	菜单栏	cài dān lán
Link	链接	liàn jiē
Internet address	网址	wăng zhĭ
Address	地址	dì zhĭ
Bookmark	书签	shū qiān
Keyword	关键字	guān jiàn zì
Pixel	像素	xiàng sù
Bookmark	收藏夹	shōu cáng jiā
Backup	备份	bèi fèn
Image	图片	tú piàn
Video	视频	shì pín

Technical Internet Terms

English	Chinese	Pinyin
System	系统	xì tŏng
Network	网络	wăng luò
Firewall	防火墙	fáng huŏ qiáng
Cloud computing	云计算	yún jì suàn
Digital	数码的	shù mă de
Broadband	宽带	kuān dài
Memory	内存	nèi cún
Meg (short for megabyte)	兆 (short for 兆字节 )	zhào (short for zhào zì jié)
Gig (short for gigabyte)	千 (short for 千兆字节 )	qiān (short for qiān zhào zì jié)

I hope you find these technical terms in Chinese helpful when you need vocabulary words for computers, the Internet, social media and the like!

Practice them on your own by creating sentences or journal entries, and immerse yourself in authentic Chinese media, like the videos on FluentU.

The videos on FluentU let you hover over words in the subtitles you don’t know so you can learn them in context. This is especially helpful for learning Internet slang and other niche technology terms.