噪音

• Pinyin: zào yīn
• Hanzi breakdown: 噪 = 口 + 喿 (clamour/noisy birds); 音 = 言 + 一 (sound — speech with a resonant tone)

Meaning

Noise; unwanted, disturbing sound. The general everyday term for loud, disruptive, or unpleasant sound that disturbs daily life.

The colloquial counterpart to the more technical 噪声. 噪音扰民 (noise disturbing residents), 隔壁的噪音 (noise from next door), 减少噪音 (to reduce noise). Very common in everyday complaints, residential disputes, and casual speech. While 噪声 is preferred in official documents and technical writing, 噪音 is the default in spoken language and everyday writing.

Examples

1. 装修季节一到，整栋楼的住户都要忍受电钻和锤击带来的噪音，苦不堪言。 Once renovation season arrives, everyone in the building has to endure the drills and hammering, and it’s miserable.
2. 咖啡馆里播放的轻音乐不仅没有减少噪音的感觉，反而让整个空间显得格外嘈杂和拥挤。 The light music playing in the café didn’t make it feel less noisy; if anything, it made the whole place feel even more chaotic and crowded.
3. 她购置了一副高品质降噪耳机，专门用来在嘈杂的地铁通勤途中屏蔽外界噪音。 She bought a pair of high-quality noise-canceling headphones specifically to block out outside noise during her loud subway commute.

Usage Guide

Context: everyday life, residential complaints, commuting, urban living

Tone: neutral/colloquial

Do Say

• 楼上邻居深夜仍在拖动家具，制造的噪音严重影响了全家人的正常休息。(The upstairs neighbour was still dragging furniture in the middle of the night; the noise seriously disrupted the whole family's rest.)
• 城市里的交通噪音让许多人不得不选择在远郊或农村定居，以寻求一份久违的宁静。(Traffic noise in the city has driven many people to settle in the outer suburbs or countryside in search of a long-missed sense of quiet.)

Don't Say

• 噪音标准值为四十五分贝 — in technical regulations, measurement standards, and official documents, 噪声 is the correct term; 噪音 sounds too informal for legal or engineering contexts

Origin & History

噪 (clamour/noise) + 音 (sound/tone)

Cultural Context

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal