驟 zou4 or zhou4

I have consulted my favourite dictionary and it lists zhou4. But with this pronunciation, you cant't type the word using pinyin input. Other on-line dictionaries give me different answers -

Lin Yutang -> zou4 only

Cdict -> zhou4 only

Xinhua -> zhou4 only

MDBG -> both

Is this one of those words which are pronounced differently between the mainland and Taiwan?

Does anyone has a Xiandian Hanyu Cidian on hand? What does it say?

zhou4, I'm sure I've heard it before. XDHYCD has zhou4.

But according to 國語詞典 (Taiwan) it's zou4.

With Microsoft IME, you can type 'zhouyu': 驟雨 etc. no problem.

骤：zhou4，I just use Pin Yin to input it in my computer, no problem.

I think maybe your computer has not this Chinese character in its 字库？

Wenlin has zhou4 only.

This is my office pc (i.e. all copyright products here) and I use the Microsoft New Phonetic IME 2002a. But I use traditional Chinese so maybe there is a difference?

If I type "zhouyu", the system gives me 周瑜. To get 驟雨, I have to type "zouyu".

驟 is zou4, meaning sudden. Is it possible that zhou is typo?

Hope it helps.

Is this one of those words which are pronounced differently between the mainland and Taiwan?

Yes, mainland dictionaries use zhòu and Taiwan dictionaries use zòu. The entry in zhongwen.com shows both pronunciations -> http://zhongwen.com/d/198/x74.htm

So, I think the pinyin input method that you use must be based on the Taiwan standard. To confirm if this is the case, you can try other similar cases, like 髮型 (fa4xing2 or fa3xing2?) or 寂寞 (ji4mo4 or ji2mo4?).

We had a few threads about this in the past. If I remember correctly, somebody said that the reason for these discrepancies is that mainland dictionaries from time to time update the pronunciation of characters to reflect changes in current usage, whereas Taiwan dictionaries stick to what was standard before 1949.