The Chinese word for Chinese New Year's Eve is a very concise word written as "除夕 (chú xī)", consisting of only two Chinese characters. The first Chinese character "除 (chú)" means to get rid of and change, here indicating the old year will come to the end on this day and the Chinese New Year (Spring Festival) will begin tomorrow. The second character "夕 (xī)" refers to the evening or night, and this is the reason that the Chinese word "除夕 (chú xī)" is sometimes also called "除夕夜 (chú xī yè)" emphasizing the night celebrations.

What's more, there are more other Chinese words referring to the Chinese New Year's Eve, like the popular "大年夜 (dà nián yè, Spring Festival's Eve)" which is known correspondingly with another traditional festival named "小年 (xiǎo nián, Minor Chinese New Year)", and the second "大年三十 (dà nián sān shí, Chinese New Year's Eve)" means the 30th day in the Lunar December of the Chinese lunar calendar, and as well as "岁除 (suì chú, Last Year Passed)" which means the last year was passed and turning into the new one but nowadays it is seldom used verbally in China due to the ancient word-formation.