1. a system for writing Mandarin Chinese using the Roman alphabet, in which each sound is represented by a letter or combination of letters.
Usage: often capitalized when referring to the official system; widely used in education and technology for learning and inputting Chinese characters

Examples

• Students learning Mandarin often start by studying pinyin to understand pronunciation.
• The word 'hello' in Mandarin is written as 你好 and pronounced nǐ hǎo in pinyin.
• Most Chinese smartphones use pinyin input methods to type characters.
• Pinyin uses tone marks above vowels to indicate the four tones of Mandarin.
• The pinyin system was officially adopted in China in 1958.
• Children in Chinese schools learn to read pinyin before mastering traditional characters.