Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

peking

/piːˈkɪŋ/

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.18 in modern English

Syllables
Pe-king
IPA
/piːˈkɪŋ/
13
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars

Meaning

name

Dated form of Beijing: a direct-administered municipality, the capital city of China.

Dated

Example Sentences

Etymology

c. 1655 romanization of the Nanking court dialect Mandarin pronunciation of Chinese 北京 (Běijīng), reinforced by Postal Romanization from before the modern palatalization of [k] to [t͡ɕ]. The early Portuguese and Jesuits such as Francis Xavier used the spelling Paquim; Abraham Ortelius used C. Paquin for his 1572 Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, the first modern atlas; Italian Jesuit Martino Martini used Peking in his 1654 Latin De Bello Tartarico Historia and 1655 Novus Atlas Sinensis, which were quickly translated into English and later used by Joan Blaeu for his 1665 Atlas Maior. Peter Heylyn's Cosmographie changed its spelling from Paquin in the 1652 edition to Peking in the 1658 edition, but both Pekin and Peking were used interchangeably in English until the Chinese Imperial Post adopted Peking as its official transcription in the 1890s. (Note that Peking is not derived from Wade-Giles romanization- see Pei-ching and Peiching.)

Origin

Word Breakdown

Usage

Inflected Forms

Derived Forms

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Rhymes With

Questions

How do you pronounce peking?
The recorded pronunciation is /piːˈkɪŋ/.
What does peking mean?
Dated form of Beijing: a direct-administered municipality, the capital city of China.
Where does peking come from?
It is traced to Chinese.

How to pronounce peking

  1. Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “peking”.
  2. Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/piːˈkɪŋ/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
  3. Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “peking”.
  4. Repeat and practice — Say “peking” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.