尼日利亞 / 尼日利亚
Nírìlìyà
Nigeria in Chinese is 尼日利亞 / 尼日利亚 (Nírìlìyà). Wiktionary also lists 奈及利亞 / 奈及利亚 (Nàijílìyà).
Meaning: a country in Western Africa (name)
Ways to say it
| Chinese | Romanization (Wiktionary) | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 尼日利亞 / 尼日利亚 | Nírìlìyà | |
| 奈及利亞 / 奈及利亚 | Nàijílìyà | Taiwan |
The word is used as a proper noun to refer to the country in Western Africa.
Which one should you use?
The form 尼日利亞 / 尼日利亚 is the standard transliteration, while 奈及利亞 / 奈及利亚 is an alternative transliteration.
Is it said differently in some regions?
奈及利亞 / 奈及利亚 is used in Taiwan, whereas 尼日利亚 is the standard in Mainland China.
How do you pronounce it?
Nírìlìyà
Did you know?
- The character 日 in the middle of 尼日利亚 usually means 'sun' or 'day'. However, in this specific name, it functions purely as a placeholder for the sound 'ri', making the word look like a string of unrelated concepts like 'monk', 'sun', 'profit', and 'Asia'.
- The character 尼 used in 尼日利亞 is also the first character used to translate 'nun' or 'monk' in a Buddhist context. However, in the name of the country, it is used purely as a phonetic building block.
- While the English name 'Nigeria' comes from the Niger River, the Chinese characters in 尼日利亚 do not reference the river at all. A Chinese speaker seeing these characters would not intuitively connect them to 'river' or 'water' without being told it is a proper noun.
Examples in context
- 我计划下个月去 尼日利亚 旅行。I plan to travel to Nigeria next month.
Sources
- Wiktionary, “nigeria” translations, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
