A compound of 电 (diàn, "electricity") + 话 (huà, "speech / words"). Coined in the late 19th century as a calque of the Western concept of the telephone — literally "electric speech." The same logographic strategy was used across East Asian languages: Japanese 電話 (denwa) and Korean 전화 (jeonhwa) are identical in character and meaning.

In China, the common verb phrase for making a call is 打电话 (dǎ diànhuà) — literally "to hit/strike a phone call." Using 打 (to hit) with 电话 may feel odd to English speakers, but 打 is a versatile verb covering many actions (打球 = play ball, 打车 = take a taxi). Be careful: 电话 can mean both the physical phone and the act of calling. To ask for someone's phone number, say 你的电话号码是多少？(Nǐ de diànhuà hàomǎ shì duōshao?)