出租车

出租车 (chūzūchē) is the standard Mandarin word for a taxi — literally 'rent-out vehicle.' It's the term you'll see on signs, in textbooks, and in Mainland news. In daily Beijing speech, locals more often say 打车 (dǎ chē, 'grab a cab') for the action and 的士 (dīshì, from Cantonese/English) for the vehicle.

In Taiwan, the same thing is usually called 計程車 (jìchéngchē, 'metered car'). Two things to know: first, since Didi (滴滴) took over in the mid-2010s, most people in China hail rides through an app and may say 网约车 (wǎngyuēchē, 'online-booked car') for ride-share, reserving 出租车 for traditional metered cabs; second, 出租车 is three syllables — learners often shorten it to 出租 in casual speech, but the full word is standard in writing.