‘类型’ (lèi xíng) is a compound noun meaning ‘type’ or ‘category’. It combines two characters: ‘类’ (lèi), meaning ‘kind’ or ‘class’, and ‘型’ (xíng), meaning ‘form’, ‘shape’, or ‘model’. Together, they emphasize classification based on shared features—like grouping things by structure, function, or origin. This word is neutral in register and widely used in both spoken and written Chinese, especially in academic, technical, and everyday descriptive contexts.

You’ll encounter ‘类型’ when discussing genres (e.g., movie types), biological classifications (e.g., animal types), software data types, or even personality types. Unlike the more colloquial ‘种’ (zhǒng, ‘kind’) or ‘类’ alone, ‘类型’ feels slightly more formal and precise—it implies systematic categorization rather than casual grouping. It often appears after classifiers like ‘这种’ (zhè zhǒng, ‘this type of’) or with verbs like ‘属于’ (shǔyú, ‘belongs to’) and ‘分为’ (fēn wéi, ‘is divided into’).