In China, Chinese New Year is generally spoken as "农历新年 (zhōng guó nóng lì xīn nián)". However, some translated this Chinese phrase into "Chinese Lunar New Year" which is not a correct translation and can not be equal with the definition of Chinese New Year. It is because the Chinese New Year Festival/Spring Festival is not designated on the lunar calendar only but based on the Chinese lunisolar calendar, the unique Chinese calendar mixing with solar and lunar calendar together. For this reason, Chinese New Year is not only a lunar festival but also a important Chinese festival relating to the solar calendar. Generally speaking, people often use two common Chinese phrases "春节 (chūn jié)" or "新年 (xīn nián)" to describe the festival, correspondingly known as the "Spring Festival" or the "Chinese New Year" in English.

What's more, Chinese New Year can be shortened as only one character "年 (nián)" in many Chinese phrases. For example, if you heard someone talking about a Chinese phrase "过年 (guò nián)", they must be talking about the Chinese New Year Festival they celebrated, not the first day of January. The character "过 (guò)" here works as a verb and means "to celebrate". There are more other similar examples, such as "拜年 (bài nián)" which refers to extend Chinese New Year greetings to others by making a visit or a phone call, and "年货 (nián huò)" indicating the food and other goods purchased for Chinese New Year celebrations.

Besides the usages above, as a common Chinese character, "年 (nián)" also has many other different meanings, such as the meaning of a (solar) year in the word "一年 (yì nián, one year)", or indicating annual in the word "年薪 (nián xīn, annual salary)", or the meaning of age in the word "年龄 (nián nín, age)", or mentioning to a period of time in the words like "童年 (tóng nián, childhood)" or "青年 (qīnq nián, youth)", etc.