Chinese whispers

English

Noun

Chinese whispers (uncountable)

1. (games, chiefly UK) A game for several players in which a phrase, whispered by each person in turn to their neighbour, is often unwittingly misunderstood as it is transferred, to humorous effect by the time it reaches the last person and is compared with the original phrase.

   Synonyms: telephone (Canada, US); broken telephone; operator; pass it down; Russian scandal; telephone game; a whisper down the lane

2. (by extension) Any situation where something is changed or misunderstood as a result of passing through successive people or processes.
   • 2004, Helen Walters, 200% Cotton: New T-Shirt Graphics (page 141)

     Rightly famed for their year 2000 project, RMX//A Visual Remix Project, for which they remixed each others' work in a Chinese Whispers-style process, they have also printed T-shirts with their eye-catching graphics […]

Translations

game

• Afrikaans: telefoontjie
• Arabic: هَاتِف عَرَبِيّ m (hātif ʕarabiyy), هَاتِف لَاسِلْكِيّ m (hātif lāsilkiyy)
• Armenian: փչացած հեռախոս (pʻčʻacʻac heṙaxos)
• Bulgarian: развален телефон m (razvalen telefon)
• Catalan: telèfon (ca) m
• Central Franconian: Stėlle Poßß f, Stille Poß f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 傳話遊戲／传话游戏, 传话游戏 (chuánhuà yóuxì)

• Czech: tichá pošta f, telefon (cs) m
• Dutch: doorfluistertje n
• Finnish: rikkinäinen puhelin, juoruämmä (fi)
• French: téléphone arabe (fr) m, téléphone sans fil (fr) m
• German: Stille Post (de) f, Flüsterpost f
• Greek: χαλασμένο τηλέφωνο (el) n (chalasméno tiléfono)
• Hebrew: טֶלֶפוֹן שָׁבוּר (he) m (télefon shavúr)
• Italian: telefono senza fili m, telegrafo senza fili m
• Japanese: 伝言ゲーム (でんごんゲーム, dengon gēmu)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Korean: 옮겨 말하기 (omgyeo malhagi)
• Macedonian: расипан телефон m (rasipan telefon)
• Polish: głuchy telefon m
• Portuguese: telefone sem fio m
• Romanian: telefonul fără fir n
• Russian: испо́рченный телефо́н m (ispórčennyj telefón), сло́манный телефо́н m (slómannyj telefón)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: глухи телефони m pl, глуви телефони m pl

  Roman: gluhi telefoni m pl, gluvi telefoni m pl

• Slovak: tichá pošta f, telefón m
• Spanish: teléfono descompuesto m, teléfono estropeado m, (Chile) teléfono (es) m
• Swedish: viskleken c
• Tatar: ватык телефон (watıq telefon)
• Turkish: kulaktan kulağa (tr)
• Ukrainian: зіпсо́ваний телефо́н m (zipsóvanyj telefón)
• Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can