Most learners of Chinese soon realise that available dictionaries have some serious problems. This is mostly true for Chinese-English (and English-Chinese) dictionaries, but it’s also true for Chinese-Chinese dictionaries (in short, they don’t work very well for learners). This article isn’t about the problem itself though, but how to overcome it. If you want to read about the issue, I suggest you head over to Albert Wolfe’s article about the shortcomings of CE dictionaries.

I have studied Chinese for some time now and have used a number of difference dictionaries. The bad news is that I still haven’t found a good dictionary that can do everything I want it to do, but the good news is that I have found several different dictionaries that among them can handle most of the questions I have.

In this article, I will share with you my favourite dictionaries, including why I think they are good, what I use them for and what drawbacks they (all) have. I also hope that you might give me suggestions of dictionaries that might replace those I list below. Note that I’m not looking for dictionaries that can do things that those below can already do well.

My goal here isn’t to give you a list of all available dictionaries. In fact, I have tried to keep the list as short as possible (it’s still quite long). This is because I know most learners are after simple and effective solutions. People who really want to explore other dictionaries will do that without my having to write about it.

This article about digital resources, so even if I mention offline dictionaries, they are still digital. I haven’t used enough paper dictionaries to evaluate them properly and most learners don’t bother with paper dictionaries today anyway.

I have sorted these sources into the following categories:



Online dictionaries mainly relying on English

MDBG

What I use it for: This is my default dictionary in this category

Pros: Clean interface, easy to use, handwriting recognition, stroke order, sound

Cons: Sometimes inadequate English definitions (true for most dictionaries, though)

This is my default dictionary in this category Clean interface, easy to use, handwriting recognition, stroke order, sound Sometimes inadequate English definitions (true for most dictionaries, though) Zhongwen.com

What I use it for: Etymology, character components, horizontal character learning

Pros: Click on any character part to view that component, good etymology in English

Cons: Horrible interface, characters as pictures rather than text you can copy

Etymology, character components, horizontal character learning Click on any character part to view that component, good etymology in English Horrible interface, characters as pictures rather than text you can copy Arch Chinese

What I use it for: Character components, collocations, word frequency

Pros: Offers related characters and words sorted by frequency (this is awesome)

Cons: None, really, this site is great in general

Character components, collocations, word frequency Offers related characters and words sorted by frequency (this is awesome) None, really, this site is great in general HanziCraft

What I use it for: Breaking down characters for sensible character learning

Pros: Very easy to use, integrates well, very fast

Cons: Is still quite new, I haven’t found too many problems though

Breaking down characters for sensible character learning Very easy to use, integrates well, very fast Is still quite new, I haven’t found too many problems though Yellow Bridge

What I use it for: Same as above

Pros: Reasonably quick look-up, all information in a tree structure

Cons: Need to log in for full details (I don’t use that feature, though), much slower than HanziCraft

Same as above Reasonably quick look-up, all information in a tree structure Need to log in for full details (I don’t use that feature, though), much slower than HanziCraft Youdao

What I use it for: Academic and/or specialist jargon, fixed expressions, dictionary

Pros: Provides parallel translations, excellent for translation work

Cons: None, really, this site is very useful



Online dictionaries mainly relying on Chinese

Zdic

What I use it for: This is my main Chinese-Chinese non-traditional dictionary

Pros: Comprehensive, detailed definitions, English, very detailed single-character information

Cons: None, really, this is my favourite online Chinese-Chinese dictionary

This is my main Chinese-Chinese non-traditional dictionary Comprehensive, detailed definitions, English, very detailed single-character information None, really, this is my favourite online Chinese-Chinese dictionary Baidu Dictionary

What I use it for: Idioms, fixed expressions, other things I can’t find in other dictionaries

Pros: User-edited, so very comprehensive (think Wikipedia), usually easier than formal dictionaries

Cons: User-edited, so quality varies, but usually very good



Online dictionaries mainly relying on Chinese (only traditional)

Chinese spell checker

What I use it for: Check the use of character variations in different words

Pros: The above feature is unique as far as I know, incredibly useful

Cons: None, really, this site fulfils its function pretty well

Check the use of character variations in different words The above feature is unique as far as I know, incredibly useful None, really, this site fulfils its function pretty well Character variant dictionary

What I use if tor: Sort out character variants (obviously)

Pros: This site is indispensable for independent advanced learners

Cons: It’s sometimes a bit confusing and doesn’t always give clear answers

What I use if tor: Sort out character variants (obviously) This site is indispensable for independent advanced learners It’s sometimes a bit confusing and doesn’t always give clear answers Taiwan Ministry of Education Chinese Dictionary

What I use it for: Look up words I can’t find anywhere else, single character information

Pros: Comprehensive and detailed

Cons: Archaic examples, hard definitions, too detailed (this is not beginner-friendly at all)

Look up words I can’t find anywhere else, single character information Comprehensive and detailed Archaic examples, hard definitions, too detailed (this is not beginner-friendly at all) Taiwan Ministry of Education Elementary School Dictionary

What I use it for: Single-character definitions and collocations in Chinese

Pros: Easier to understand than its bigger cousin (see above)

Cons: Only has single-characters

Single-character definitions and collocations in Chinese Easier to understand than its bigger cousin (see above) Only has single-characters Taiwan Ministry of Education Character Stroke Order Dictionary

What I use it for: Check stroke order, check the current writing standard in Taiwan

Pros: Detailed, well-structured, comprehensive

Cons: None, really, it does the job pretty well



Offline dictionaries you should check out (apps)



Pleco

What I use it for: Everything on the move, this is all you need, really

Pros: Excellent handwriting input, OCR input, flashcards, excellent dictionaries

Cons: Some functions aren’t free

Everything on the move, this is all you need, really Excellent handwriting input, OCR input, flashcards, excellent dictionaries Some functions aren’t free Hanping

What I use it for: Very similar to Pleco in terms of functionality

Pros: Cheaper than Pleco

Cons: Still costs money, fewer features than Pleco



Online corpora and other sentence sources

Jukuu

What I use it for: Sentence mining, gathering large volumes of examples

Pros: Contains a large number of sentences

Cons: Sometimes hard to find actual sentences, some results are either only words or fragments

Sentence mining, gathering large volumes of examples Contains a large number of sentences Sometimes hard to find actual sentences, some results are either only words or fragments Iciba

What I use it for: Similar to Jukuu above

Pros: Contains a large number of sentences

Cons: The English translations are horrible, don’t trust them more than you would trust Google translate.

Similar to Jukuu above Contains a large number of sentences The English translations are horrible, don’t trust them more than you would trust Google translate. Nciku

What I use it for: Same as above; has fewer but in general better sentences

Pros: Higher quality sentences with much better translations (reliable English in many cases)

Cons: Lacks examples of uncommon words and sometimes have too few sentences to find the usage I’m after

Same as above; has fewer but in general better sentences Higher quality sentences with much better translations (reliable English in many cases) Lacks examples of uncommon words and sometimes have too few sentences to find the usage I’m after LCMC

What I use it for: Collocations, mostly

Pros: Is a real, tokenised corpus, very big

Cons: Hard to use if you’re not used to corpus research

Collocations, mostly Is a real, tokenised corpus, very big Hard to use if you’re not used to corpus research Academia Sinica Balanced Corpus of Modern Chinese

What I use it for: Most queries about traditional Chinese or Mandarin usage in Taiwan

Pros: Is a real, tokenised corpus

Cons: Only covers Taiwan, not big enough at times

Most queries about traditional Chinese or Mandarin usage in Taiwan Is a real, tokenised corpus Only covers Taiwan, not big enough at times Google

What I use it for: Anything I can’t find using the other sources I’ve listed above

Pros: Mindbogglingly high number of sentences

Cons: Hard to find what you’re looking for, hard to be sure that what you find is actually a good example

That’s all for now, I think. If you have any suggestions for how to improve this list by replacing any dictionary with one which is strictly better, let me know! Remember, though, this isn’t an attempt to gather as many dictionaries as possible, but rather to list the best dictionaries for specific purposes. I will keep the list updated as I find better alternatives, please help!

Update: I removed Wenlin and added Hanping instead. Wenlin is great, but it’s very outdated and I can’t even use it with what I have available, whereas Hanping is much more likely to help students. I also removed I Cha Cha and added Youdao instead. The latter is roughly a hundred times better than the previous and I blame my previous inclusion of I Cha Cha on plain ignorance.

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