汽车 literally means 'steam vehicle'—from 汽 (qì, 'steam' or 'vapor') and 车 (chē, 'vehicle' or 'cart'). Though its etymology refers to early steam-powered transport, in modern Chinese it simply means 'automobile' or 'car'—a four-wheeled motor vehicle used for personal or commercial transportation. It is the standard, neutral term used across mainland China, Taiwan, and Singapore, appearing in formal writing, traffic signs, news reports, and everyday speech.

The word is a compound noun and functions as a singular countable noun: you say 一辆汽车 (yī liàng qìchē, 'one car'), not *一台汽车 (though 台 is sometimes heard colloquially, 量 is the correct measure word). 汽车 contrasts with other vehicle terms like 火车 (huǒchē, 'train'), 自行车 (zìxíngchē, 'bicycle'), or 公交车 (gōngjiāochē, 'bus')—all sharing the 车 suffix but differing in prefix.