The best Chinese dictionaries and reference tools for learners — apps, websites, and print resources compared. What to use at each stage of learning.
Every Chinese learner quickly discovers that a dictionary is not optional — it is the constant companion of every reading session, the first thing you reach for when an unknown character appears, and the resource you will use thousands of times across your learning journey. But unlike English dictionaries, where any reasonable dictionary will serve most purposes, Chinese dictionaries vary enormously in design, coverage, and utility. Choosing the right tools — and knowing how to use them effectively — is itself a learnable skill that pays dividends throughout your study.
This guide covers the major categories of Chinese reference tools: mobile apps, web-based dictionaries, physical dictionaries, grammar references, and specialised resources. The recommendation is not to use all of them but to understand what each does best so you can build a toolkit matched to your level and needs.
Pleco is, without question, the most important dedicated Chinese dictionary app for learners. If you are learning Chinese and you have a smartphone, Pleco should be on it. It has been the standard reference for serious learners and professionals for many years, and its feature set — particularly the paid add-ons — is unmatched by any competing app.
The free version of Pleco includes access to multiple dictionaries simultaneously (including CC-CEDICT, a high-quality community-built Chinese-English dictionary), full stroke order animations, example sentences, audio pronunciations, handwriting input for looking up characters you cannot type, and a built-in flashcard system. The core free app is genuinely excellent and sufficient for most everyday lookup needs.
The paid add-ons unlock professional-quality content: the ABC Chinese-English Dictionary (the most comprehensive Chinese-English learner dictionary in existence, with around 196,000 entries), the FLTRP Chinese-English Dictionary, advanced document reader mode (which lets you tap any character in an imported text and get instant definitions), and enhanced flashcard features. For serious learners, the combined dictionary bundle is worth the investment — the quality difference from the free CC-CEDICT entries to the ABC dictionary entries is significant, particularly for nuanced vocabulary, technical terms, and usage notes.
Pleco's OCR (optical character recognition) feature — available as a paid add-on — lets you point your camera at Chinese text and get instant character lookups. This is transformative for learners who want to read restaurant menus, signs, packaging, and any other written Chinese in the physical environment. The combination of OCR lookup and instant audio makes decoding unfamiliar text in real-world settings genuinely fast and practical.
MDBG (mdbg.net) is the most comprehensive and carefully maintained free Chinese-English web dictionary. It is based on the CC-CEDICT dataset — the same dataset that powers the free version of Pleco — but the web interface adds useful features: you can paste an entire paragraph of Chinese text and get word-by-word popup translations as you mouse over it, search by pinyin or character, and access etymology information. For desktop-based reading and research, MDBG is fast, reliable, and excellent.
The paragraph-level popup translation feature is particularly useful for reading practice: paste a text you want to read, hover over unfamiliar words, and continue reading with minimal friction. This is how many learners do preliminary reading of Chinese news articles or literary passages before the words become fully familiar.
Yellowbridge (yellowbridge.com) is a Chinese dictionary with an emphasis on character analysis and etymology. For each character, it shows the traditional and simplified forms side by side, the stroke order, the component breakdown (which radicals and phonetic components make up the character), and the character's historical development. For learners who use the radical-story mnemonic approach to character learning, Yellowbridge provides exactly the decomposition information needed to build mnemonics effectively.
The etymology section is not always perfectly reliable for deep historical claims, but it is one of the more accessible tools for understanding how characters are built. Combined with Pleco for core definitions, Yellowbridge fills a useful niche for character-focused study.
For Android users, Hanping Chinese Dictionary is the main alternative to Pleco. Its free version is excellent for core lookup needs, and the pro upgrade adds features comparable to Pleco's paid tier. If you are on Android and find Pleco's interface less comfortable, Hanping is a well-maintained and well-regarded alternative.
Machine translation tools like DeepL and Google Translate should be part of every Chinese learner's toolkit — but for a specific and limited purpose. Both tools have improved dramatically in quality for Chinese-English translation and are genuinely useful for:
What machine translation should NOT replace is character-by-character lookup and deliberate vocabulary acquisition. If you translate every paragraph immediately and never engage with the characters, you are reading English, not Chinese. The correct workflow: attempt to read a passage yourself, note unknown vocabulary, look it up in Pleco, then use machine translation to verify your overall comprehension interpretation if you are unsure.
DeepL currently produces somewhat more natural-sounding English output than Google Translate for Chinese, though both are useful. Google Translate has the advantage of its camera/lens feature on mobile, which performs a similar function to Pleco's OCR for quick real-world text lookup.
One of the most important things a dictionary can give you — and that basic dictionaries often shortchange — is extensive example sentences showing how a word is actually used in context. Knowing a word's definition tells you what it means; knowing how it appears in real sentences tells you how to use it correctly.
Jukuu (jukuu.com) is a Chinese-English sentence database with millions of example sentences searchable by Chinese word or English keyword. For any vocabulary item you want to use actively — in writing or speaking — looking up five to ten example sentences in Jukuu and reading how the word functions in real contexts is far more useful than reading a definition alone. The sentences are user-contributed and vary in quality, but the volume is large enough that good examples are almost always available.
Tatoeba (tatoeba.org) is a multilingual sentence database with Chinese-English pairs, curated for accuracy. Smaller than Jukuu but often higher quality per sentence. Good for cross-checking usage patterns.
For grammar questions — which are as important as vocabulary questions and often answered less well by dictionaries — the Chinese Grammar Wiki (resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese) is the best freely available reference. It organises Chinese grammar points by level (A1 through C2 equivalent), provides clear explanations with multiple example sentences, and distinguishes formal from colloquial usage. It covers everything from basic 是...的 structures to complex classical grammar patterns.
When a grammar structure appears in your reading that you cannot parse from vocabulary alone — a pattern you don't recognise — the Chinese Grammar Wiki is the fastest path to a clear, learner-oriented explanation. Bookmark it and use it whenever a sentence's structure doesn't make sense after looking up all the words.
James Heisig and Timothy Richardson's "Remembering the Hanzi" (Simplified and Traditional versions) remains a valuable physical reference for the mnemonic approach to character learning. The books systematically decompose characters into components and provide mnemonic story frameworks for each, covering the most frequent 1,500 or 3,000 characters. If you prefer systematic book-based study alongside app tools, this series is the most structured available for character memorisation.
Physical Chinese dictionaries — either Chinese-English learner dictionaries or Chinese-Chinese dictionaries (字典, zìdiǎn or 词典, cídiǎn) — have largely been supplanted by Pleco for everyday lookup needs. However, there are contexts where physical references remain valuable:
A good monolingual Chinese dictionary (Chinese-Chinese) is an advanced study tool that forces you to engage with the language on its own terms rather than through English. The 现代汉语词典 (Xiàndài Hànyǔ Cídiǎn, Modern Chinese Dictionary) is the standard authoritative Chinese dictionary, used by educated Chinese speakers for reference. When you reach upper-intermediate level, beginning to use a Chinese-Chinese dictionary — even occasionally — accelerates your development of Chinese-language thinking rather than constant English-mediated comprehension.
For most learners, the optimal toolkit is: Pleco (mobile, core lookups), MDBG (desktop reading), Chinese Grammar Wiki (grammar questions), and DeepL (comprehension checking). This covers the vast majority of reference needs at every level. Add Jukuu for production vocabulary and the ABC Dictionary Pleco add-on once you are past beginner level and encountering nuanced vocabulary regularly.
Avoid the temptation to use translation tools as a reading crutch. The goal of a dictionary in language learning is not to make unfamiliar text transparent instantly — it is to turn unfamiliar vocabulary into familiar vocabulary through active encounter and retention. Use reference tools actively: look up a word, note its pinyin and tone, read an example sentence, add it to your Anki deck. Passive machine translation bypasses this process entirely.
The Grammar section on Dumplingo covers the key grammatical patterns you need to read Chinese stories effectively, complementing whatever dictionary tools you use for vocabulary. Reading the HSK 1 Huangshan Adventure series with Pleco open alongside is a practical way to build dictionary lookup speed while reading real graded content. At higher levels, the HSK 5 Tech Startup story and HSK 6 Bondi Beach story contain professional and literary vocabulary where a high-quality dictionary like the ABC becomes noticeably valuable. The built-in tap-to-translate on Dumplingo means you don't need to switch apps for in-story lookups — every word is a tap away.
The best dictionary in the world works even better alongside real Chinese reading practice. Try Dumplingo's graded stories with native audio and instant tap-to-look-up. Start reading →