Menu
Home
People
Places
Arts
History
Plants & Animals
Science
Life & Culture
Technology
Reference.org
Pinyin alphabetical order
open-in-new
<p>Pinyin alphabetical order, also called Pinyin-based order, or Pinyin order in short, is a sound-based Chinese character sorting method which has been used for arrangement of entries in <i><a href="/facts/Xinhua_Dictionary/sL1vgapk">Xinhua Dictionary</a></i>, <i><a href="/facts/Xiandai_Hanyu_Cidian/h68uLEHW">Xiandai Hanyu Cidian</a></i>, <i>Oxford Chinese Dictionary</i> and many other modern dictionaries. In this method, Chinese characters are arranged according to the order of the <a href="/facts/ISO_basic_Latin_alphabet/DxrvCBK8">Latin alphabet</a> adopted in "<a href="/facts/Pinyin/pUwjfMXg">Chinese Pinyin Scheme</a>". </p><p>Pinyin alphabetical order is applicable to the ordering of both Chinese characters and words. It is primarily of alphabetical order and thus more simple and internationally acceptable than the traditional <a href="/facts/Collation/cdLx5Cum">Radical-and-stroke sorting</a>. The serious disadvantage of pinyin order lies in its disability to support lookup of words without knowing their pronunciations. </p>