Chinese Dictionaries Introduction
The East Asian Library has a wide variety of Chinese dictionaries available to meet the needs of Chinese language learners and researchers at all levels of proficiency. These include English/Chinese dictionaries for elementary learners, English/Chinese Chinese/English dictionaries, Chinese/English dictionaries, Chinese character dictionaries, stroke order dictionaries, advanced Chinese/Chinese dictionaries, as well as online and mobile dictionaries. These dictionaries vary in their format and use of simplified or traditional characters or both.Most of these dictionaries use pinyin romanization, with some exceptions that use the Wade Giles and Zhuyin Fuhao phonetics systems.
To select a dictionary that is most useful to you, you can view different types of dictionary tab on the top of this page and see the sample page of a dictionary. Furthermore, there are many more dictionaries available that are not listed in this guide, when you visit the East Asian Library or check the library catalog, you can browse the full selection of Chinese dictionaries online or see in the East Asian Reference reading room.
- English/Chinese Chinese/English DictionariesThese dictionaries can be searched either using English or Chinese and list definitions and explanations in both languages.
- Chinese/English DictionariesThese dictionaries must be searched using a phonetic system of Chinese and display results in English.
- English/Chinese DictionariesEnglish/Chinese dictionaries are searched using English and list Chinese words and phonetic pronunciation along with English explanations.
- Stroke Order DictionariesThese dictionaries show how to write individual characters stroke by stroke.
- Character DictionariesCharacter dictionaries provide pronunciation and definitions of individual characters.
- Advanced Chinese DictionariesThese dictionaries provide definitions and/or examples exclusively in Chinese and must be searched in Chinese.
- Mobile DictionariesOnline dictionaries and apps that can be used offline on your mobile device.
