'无线' (wúxiàn) literally means 'without wires' — 无 (wú) meaning 'without' or 'no', and 线 (xiàn) meaning 'wire' or 'cable'. Together, they form an adjective describing technology or devices that operate without physical cables, such as wireless internet, Bluetooth headphones, or cordless phones. It is commonly used in technical, commercial, and everyday contexts when referring to connectivity methods that rely on radio waves, Wi-Fi, or other electromagnetic transmission.

The term functions attributively before nouns (e.g., 无线网络 wúxiàn wǎngluò 'wireless network') and occasionally as a noun itself in compound terms like 无线通信 (wúxiàn tōngxìn, 'wireless communication'). Unlike English, where 'wireless' can be a standalone noun ('Turn on the wireless'), in Chinese it rarely stands alone without a head noun — it almost always modifies another noun or appears in fixed compounds.