What's the Chinese Word for Metaverse?
Tell A Must-Know Chinese Buzzword Meta/Metaverse With Bilingual Expositions (EN/CN)

What Is Chinese Word For Metaverse?

Metaverse 对应的中文是什么？ [Zhōng wén shì]

Metaverse, either the English or Chinese expression form, is an important word you must know in this year or the near future since it is associated with the concept of "Metaverse" technology which can integrate the virtual and real-world, and let people work, study, play games and socialize in a virtual environment, and also leads Facebook to a new corporate name Meta.

这是一个 2021 年以及未来数年你必须知道的词汇，无论是英语的、还是汉语的，因为它关系到最火热的“Metaverse”概念，也是它催生了 Facebook 的新中文名称。

Thinking of one Chinese word to express the Metaverse concisely, it must be written into 元宇宙 , it's Chinese pinyin (yuán yǔ zhòu) as a hint for the standard Chinese pronunciation.

Metaverse 用一个中文词来表达的话，那便是“元宇宙”三个字。

Initially, the word Metaverse came from a science fiction novel by an American writer Neal Stephenson, the "Snow Crash" published in 1992, in which the Metaverse was used to title a paralleled, virtual reality-based digital world. Then it was rapidly introduced and linked with a Chinese term 元宇宙 (yuán yǔ zhòu) with deep strong implications for future technology.

“元宇宙”一词，最早来源于一部 1992 年发行的尼尔·斯蒂芬森的科幻小说《雪崩》里描述的名为 Metaverse 的一个平行虚拟世界。随后，Metaverse 很快被引入并被定名为一个寓意深远的汉语词语“元宇宙”。

The Chinese Word Metaverse Picked Into China's Word of The Year 2021

“元宇宙”当选 2021 年度中文流行语 [Líu xíng yǔ]

The last month of every year always comes various summing-ups, such as the Word of the Year, or the trend of some fields. Also in China, there is the release of top Chinese buzzwords rankings and related discussions on the Internet.

每年年尾，都会迎来各式各样的盘点和总结，比如年度风云词汇、比如某个领域的潮流趋势。在中国，也会如是在互联网上发布本年度的中文流行语榜单，引发热议。

Recently, a list of "The 2021 Top 10 Chinese Buzzwords", or China's Word of the Year, was announced by the National Language Resources Monitoring And Research Center, in which Metaverse's Chinese form 元宇宙 (yuán yǔ zhòu) has been unsurprisingly ranked into the most popular Chinese word of the year.

最近，在一项由中国国家语言资源监测与研究中心最新发布的“2021年度十大中文流行语”榜单中，汉语词“元宇宙”毫无意外地入选了。

What's Chinese Word Metaverse Consist of?

“元宇宙”包含哪些字词？ [Bāo hán de zì cí]

In Chinese, the top buzzword 元宇宙 can be divided into two parts. It consists of a four-stroke simple character 元 and a basic proper astronomy term 宇宙 in Chinese.

在中文里，“元宇宙”一词可以拆分成两个部分。它是由一个笔画简单的汉字“元”和一个常见的天文学名词“宇宙”组合而成的。

After the correct division above, it could be better for us to understand the whole term, especially for the very beginners on the Chinese study. So let's break the word and explain each with expositions below.

拆分后，更能理解和掌握这个中文专有名词，尤其适合中文初学者。以下将分别展开说明。

How to Understand Chinese Meta / Metaverse? Give Bilingual Expositions

元 v.s. 宇宙 [Yuán hé yǔ zhòu]

Understand Chinese Character "元" For Metaverse

The first character 元 (yuán), not exactly the Chinese meaning of meta, often implies the beginning, origin, or the head of anything on earth, e.g.:
元年 (yuán nián) in Chinese standing for the first year of a new era or the reign period,
新纪元 (xīn jì yuán) for the beginning of a new era,
and 元帅 (yuán shuài) for the supreme commander.
And this word also gets related with money, such as 元 (yuán) as Yuan of RMB, the unit of Chinese currency.

“Meta” 并不直接对应中文里的“元”字。“元”字，在中文里常用来形容一切的开始、起始和万物之首，比如“元年”、“新纪元”或“元帅”。同时“元”也与货币有关，比如是人民币的货币单位等。

Most importantly, this word appears in a great Chinese festival name "YuanDan Festival" 元旦 (yuán dàn) you may have well known about before, which indicates the first day of the year, corresponding with the New Year's Day accordingly.

或许你已对它很熟悉了，毕竟我们在介绍中国节日“元旦”时常提及它。

Understand Chinese Word "宇宙" For Metaverse

On the other hand, the second word 宇宙 (yǔ zhòu) is a very common Chinese noun that corresponds to the English word Universe.

元宇宙里的另一个词“宇宙”，在中文里是个很常见的专有名词，对应英文里的 Universe 一词。

Looking into the word, the former character 宇 (yǔ) in Chinese has an implication of the immense space of the universe, while the latter 宙 (zhòu) implies the infinite and immeasurable stretches of time.

在中文里，它的第一个汉字“宇”暗指无限的空间，“宙”则指向无限的时间。

To learn more popular Chinese words and top buzzwords, looking for starting Chinese learning entertainingly, keep an eye on our updating at www.chinaclife.com.

想学会更多的中文常用语、流行语，或想趣学中文，记得随时关注我们的更新。

Enjoy and hope it helped!