Software Engineering Vocabulary — Chinese/Mandarin

A compiled list of Software engineering related words in Mandarin

Due to recent work circumstances, I’ve been exposed heavily to reading documentation written in Chinese (中文文档). As someone who grew up in an English speaking household, despite being Chinese, the process of getting through just a single page document was not only agonizing slow but mentally taxing as well. It has been about a month since I stared this journey and the feeling of not understanding a thing after having read a sentence has long become second nature to me. Over these past couple of weeks, I’ve been keeping a close track and putting a together a list of ‘Software Engineering’-related vocabulary to aid my learning.

I’m sharing this list with anyone who might be interested (or in the same position as me) in hopes that this helps alleviate some of the growing pains as well. Without further ado, here we go:

1. 文档 Wéndàng — documentation
2. 服务 Fúwù — service
3. 架构 Jiàgòu —architecture
4. 注册 Zhùcè — register
5. 设计 Shèjì — design
6. 版本 Bǎnběn — version
7. 集群 Jíqún — cluster
8. 数据 Shùjù — data
9. 同步 Tóngbù — synchronize
10. 配置中心 Pèizhì zhōngxīn — configuration centre
11. 主从 Zhǔ cóng — master-slave
12. 信息 Xìnxī — information
13. 模式 Móshì — model
14. 生产(者) Shēngchǎn (zhě) — produce(r)
15. 消费(者) Xiāofèi (zhě) — consumer(r)
16. 详解 Xiángjiě — to explain in detail
17. 逻辑 Luójí — logic
18. 处理 Chǔlǐ — to handle ~
19. 流量 Liúliàng — flow/traffic
20. 启动 Qǐdòng — start up
21. 部署 Bùshǔ — deploy
22. 会抛 Huì pāo — ~ will throw (error)
23. 设置 Shèzhì — set up
24. 捕获(异常) Bǔhuò (yìcháng)— catch (exception)
25. 抛出(异常) Pāo chū (yìcháng) — throw (exception)
26. 挂掉 Guà diào — ~ to drop
27. 故障 Gùzhàng — bug (in software)
28. 容灾操作步骤 Róng zāi cāozuò bùzhòu — disaster recovery steps
29. 带宽 Dàikuān — bandwidth
30. 离线 Líxiàn — offline
31. 演练 Yǎnliàn — walkthrough
32. 单纯 Dānchún — simply
33. 订阅 Dìngyuè — subscription
34. 负载均衡 Fùzǎi jūnhéng — load balancing
35. 均衡分配 Jūnhéng fēnpèi — balanced distribution
36. 宕机 Dàng jī — downtime
37. 优雅关闭 Yōuyǎ guānbì — graceful shutdown
38. 组协调者 Zǔ xiétiáo zhě — group coordinator
39. 查询 Cháxún — inquiry
40. 具体原因分析 Jùtǐ yuányīn fēnxī — root cause analysis
41. 排查思路 Páichá sīlù — troubleshooting ideas
42. 接口 Jiēkǒu — interface
43. 实例 Shílì — (computing) instance /An example of
44. 技术 Jìshù — technical
45. 运维 Yùn wéi — operation and maintenance
46. 云原生 Yún yuánshēng — cloud native
47. 项目追踪 Xiàngmù zhuīzōng — project tracking
48. 延迟 Yánchí — delay
49. 覆盖 Fùgài — cover
50. 触发 Chùfā — trigger
51. 类型 Lèixíng — type of ~
52. 函数 Hánshù — function
53. 共享 Gòngxiǎng — share
54. 场景 Chǎngjǐng — situation/scenario
55. 系统 Xìtǒng — system
56. 重试队列 Chóng shì duìliè — retry queue
57. 规则 Guīzé — rule
58. 遵循 Zūnxún — follow
59. 研发 Yánfā — R&D
60. 事故 Shìgù — accident
61. 复盘 Fù pán — remediation/re-continuation
62. 业务 Yèwù — business
63. 立即 Lìjí — immediate
64. 指定 Zhǐdìng — to appoint / to assign
65. 确认 Quèrèn — confirm
66. 缩减 Suōjiǎn — reduce
67. 节点 Jiédiǎn — node
68. 参数 Cānshù — parameter
69. 基于 Jīyú — based on ~
70. 审核 Shěnhé — Audit
71. 领域 Lǐngyù — domain
72. 概念 Gàiniàn — concept
73. 循环 Xúnhuán — cycle (not the physical sport)
74. 即可 Jí kě — Can then (do something)
75. 缓存 Huǎncún — Cache
76. 整合 Zhěnghé — intergration
77. 排序 Páixù — sort
78. 规划 Guīhuà — planning
79. 拉取 Lā qǔ — client pull (computing)
80. 额外 Éwài — additional
81. 说明 Shuōmíng — information/explanation
82. 逐步 Zhúbù — step-by-step
83. 扩展 Kuòzhǎn — expand
84. 相应 Xiāngyìng — corresponding/ relevant/ appropriate
85. 频繁Pínfán — frequent
86. 排除 Páichú — exclude
87. 导致 Dǎozhì — lead to
88. 细节 Xìjié — details/particulars
89. 强调 Qiángdiào — emphaize
90. 交流 Jiāoliú — communicate
91. 将Jiāng-will
92. 过滤Guòlǜ — filter
93. 术语 Shùyǔ — terminology
94. 解释 Jiěshì — explain
95. 负责 Fùzé — responsible for ~
96. 监控 Jiānkòng — to monitor
97. 告警 Gàojǐng — to report
98. 顺序 Shùnxù — sequence, order
99. 规模 Guīmó — scale [noun]
100. 暴露 Bàolù — to expose; to reveal; to lay bare
101. 稳定 Wěndìng — stability
102. 存储 Cúnchú — to store; memory; storage
103. 实际 Shíjì — actual
104. 拷贝 kǎobèi — copy (loanword — i.e. it sounds like copy)
105. 策略 cèlüè — strategy; tactics
106. 磁盘 cípán — (computer) disk
107. 瓶颈 píngjǐng — bottleneck
108. 调度 Diàodù — scheduling
109. 恢复 Huīfù — recover
110. 持久化存储 Chíjiǔ huà cúnchú — persistent storage
111. 弹性 tánxìng — elasticity; flexibility
112. 目录 mùlù — directory (on computer hard drive); list; contents

And…. there we go. For those who have a better command of Chinese than I do, I understanding that some of the translations might not be wholly precise, but they should capture the spirit of the word — feel free to let me know, will correct it once it’s double checked!

I’ll continue to build upon this list every week, so do drop a follow if you’re interested as well 😊. If anyone wishes to contribute to this list, do leave a comment on some of terms/phrases that you encountered, I would love to add them in.