As COVID-19 has hit the world, new vocabulary and expressions (new words) are being produced and distributed in large quantities in many countries around the world. This language change has been widespread by expanding its scope to social and structural changes, as well as to the areas of life and psychology, to refer to and describe the disease COVID-19. As such, the newly coined words and the vocabulary used during this period caused by COVID-19 will allow us to read the platform of the society facing COVID-19. COVID-19 hit the global community, but just as each country’s policy direction and people’s response differed widely, the language change caused by COVID-19 was in a society, but it developed in different ways from country to country. As language is a tool used by humans, a living organism, it repeats creation and extinction. Furthermore, as COVID-19 is still not conquered by humans, its impact is expected to continue for the time being. This paper aims to examine the social changes and aspects of the Chinese people’s experience in the face of COVID-19 through language changes that have occurred in Chinese society since the discovery of COVID-19.

COVID-19, China, neologisms, infectious diseases, Language change