What kind of Chinese dialect is most spoken in China?

The word "mandarin" is an English word meaning "court official" or "clerk", but it is from the Chinese name for these men. The Chinese use "pudonhua" (Pinyin probably wrong, please correct) meaning common language.

Tom, Mandarin is the official language of China, also known as "pu tong hua".

Marshall, Im sure amongst older Chinese Cantonese would be correct 👍

This question was on a general knowledge tv show recently and on that occasion Cantonese was the answer. Hmmmm