寶可夢

Chinese

		a jewel or gem; a treasure; precious	can; may; able to can; may; able to; certain(ly); to suit; (particle used for emphasis)	to dream
trad. (寶可夢)		寶	可	夢
simp. (宝可梦)		宝	可	梦

Etymology

Phono-semantic matching of Japanese ポケモン (Pokemon).

The use of the character 寶 was influenced by its presence in 神奇寶貝, which was previously used as the official title of the franchise in Taiwan.

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): Bǎokěmèng

  (Zhuyin): ㄅㄠˇ ㄎㄜˇ ㄇㄥˋ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): bou² ho² mung⁶

---

• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: Bǎokěmèng [Phonetic: báokěmèng]
    • Zhuyin: ㄅㄠˇ ㄎㄜˇ ㄇㄥˋ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: Bǎokěmèng
    • Wade–Giles: Pao³-kʻo³-mêng⁴
    • Yale: Bǎu-kě-mèng
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: Baokeemenq
    • Palladius: Баокэмэн (Baokɛmɛn)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /pɑʊ̯²¹⁴⁻³⁵ kʰɤ²¹⁴⁻²¹ mɤŋ⁵¹/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)⁺
    • Jyutping: bou² ho² mung⁶
    • Yale: bóu hó muhng
    • Cantonese Pinyin: bou² ho² mung⁶
    • Guangdong Romanization: bou² ho² mung⁶
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /pou̯³⁵ hɔː³⁵ mʊŋ²²/

Proper noun

寶可夢

1. Pokémon

Usage notes

This term was first used in official Pokémon media released in Mainland China in 2010. Previous Mainland releases had used the titles 宠物小精灵 and 神奇宝贝.

In 2016, the use of this term was extended to official media released in Taiwan and Hong Kong, where the local translations had previously used the titles 神奇寶貝 and 寵物小精靈 respectively.

Synonyms

• 口袋妖怪 (Kǒudài Yāoguài)
• 神奇寶貝／神奇宝贝 (Shénqí Bǎobèi)
• 寵物小精靈／宠物小精灵 (Chǒngwù Xiǎo Jīnglíng)