Learn Chinese OK!: Chinese Character Databases & Useful Dictionaries. Free! Online! Really huge resources!

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nciku.com - "more than a dictionary", the cool "Next Treasure House of Words" created by one of Asia's largest transnational internet companies, with a high level of technological interactivity; Chinese-English, English-Chinese, as well as Chinese with multiple languages
- with auto-complete
- search input by Chinese characters, English, pinyin, radicals, and even handwriting recognition
- with illustrations to aid meaning
- audio for words and sentence examples
- with pinyin on mouseover

nciku Translator - pinyin available [ http://tool.nciku.com/pinyin-translator/ ]

nciku mini [ http://www.nciku.com/mini ] - small screen version of nciku
nciku mobile for mobile phones [ http://m.nciku.com/ ]
nciku Toolbar - easily show nciku entries when reading Chinese web pages, and other nciku functionality via browser toolbar [ http://tool.nciku.com/toolbar ]

nciku.com.tw - uses traditional Chinese characters

nciku Video Notes are short animations designed to explain what differentiates Chinese words (almost 100 different groups) which have the same or very similar meanings in English. [ http://blog.nciku.com/blog/en/nciku-video-notes/ ]
nciku Notes to explain what differentiates Chinese words (over 1000 words) which have the same or very similar meanings in English. [ http://www.nciku.com/qna/allnote?dictype=zh ]

nciku Vocab Lists [ http://www.nciku.com/vocab ]
- choose from thousands of vocab lists (with pinyin, English & audio) or easily, and even automatically, make your own
- make an automated MP3 audio recording of the vocab list
- export to your computer
- print flashcards
- use vocab lists in four kinds of interactive online Memorization Tests: fill in the correct word, choose the correct definition, translate, dictation
- thousands of vocab lists / online flashcards by theme, with pinyin, English, pictures & audio @ nciku Theme Words [ http://www.nciku.com/theme ], study the Theme Words through online Flashcards with hide/reveal fields [ http://hi.nciku.com/space.php?do=testflashcards ], or in a Theme Word Quiz [ http://hi.nciku.com/space.php?do=testflashcards ]

HSK vocabulary tests in Learning Exercises @ nciku.com [ http://hi.nciku.com/space.php?do=test ] Vocabulary tests, Pinyin Tests and Fill-in-the-blank tests for the various HSK levels

Learn with the nciku Random Character Generator - with English definition, pinyin, and stroke order animation [ http://blog.nciku.com/blog/en/?page_id=724 ]

nciku Conversations [ http://www.nciku.com/conversation ] - Learn Chinese conversation with Chinese text, pinyin, English and audio. Over 700 topics!

Yellowbridge.com Dictionary [ http://www.yellowbridge.com/chinese/chinese-dictionary.php ]
Search input by Chinese characters, pinyin, or English. Features include:
- Talking dictionary lets you listen to words right from your computer.
- Handwriting recognition. If you don't recognize a character, you can simply draw it with your mouse to search for it.
- Fuzzy pinyin matches words even when you are unsure of the exact pronunciation.
- Word and character decomposition, character etymology, and stroke order.
- Lists related words that share the same head or tail word; derived words, and words with a similar pronunciation.
- Example sentences.

MDBG dictionary [ http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php ]
- enter Chinese characters or Pinyin or English
- with Chinese word at beginning of compound words, at end of compound words, and in the middle of compound words
- with audio
- with example sentences from jukuu.com

MDBG Practice Chinese tools [ http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?page=practice ]
- Online Flashcards: You can create your own flashcards set based on your favorite study texts. Just copy & paste Chinese text. Or create flashcards using predefined HSK levels. The characters are divided into 6 levels according to the HSK vocabulary. [ http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?page=flashcard ]
- Create an Online Chinese Character Quiz. You can create your own character quiz based on your favorite study texts by copying & pasting Chinese text; or create quizzes using predefined HSK levels. The characters are divided into 6 levels according to the HSK vocabulary. [ http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?page=charquiz ]
- Receive Vocabulary Web Feeds ten times a day, using 6 different predefined HSK levels [ http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?page=feeds ]

MDBG.net hosts and maintains CC-CEDICT, a widely used opensource Chinese-English dictionary database. The objective of the CEDICT project was to create an online, downloadable (as opposed to searchable-only) public-domain Chinese-English dictionary. [ http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?page=cedict ] [ http://cc-cedict.org/wiki/start ]

Look up Chinese characters in the CEDICT by handwritten/mousewritten input [ http://www.kiang.org/jordan/software/hanzilookup/hanzidict.html ]

Zhongwen.com, a mountainous achievement in the modern Internet era by Rick Harbaugh, based on the work of a 2000 year old etymological dictionary. A unique online dictionary that, thorough hyperlinked cross-referencing of character components and radicals, shows graphically the close etymological interconnections between the thousands of Chinese characters, in a genealogical tree system [ http://zhongwen.com/ ].
- Input English or Pinyin [ http://zhongwen.com/m/search.htm ]
- browse English [ http://zhongwen.com/m/yinghan.htm ],
- browse by Pinyin [ http://zhongwen.com/s/ziyin.htm ], browse by bopomofo Zhuyin [ http://zhongwen.com/s/zhuyin.htm ],
- browse by radical [ http://zhongwen.com/s/bushou.htm ], browse by stroke count [ http://zhongwen.com/s/bishu.htm ]
- Chinese Characters Dictionary WEB, jump between more than a dozen different dictionaries [ http://zhongwen.com/zi.htm ]. Input English, Chinese characters or browse by Radical

Smarthanzi.net is also with etymological features [ http://www.smarthanzi.net/ ].
Find a character's English (or Fench) definition by the 858 Phonetic Elements or by Radicals, hyperlinked with etymological lessons from Leon Wieger's classic reference book on Chinese Characters.

Chineseetymology.org [ http://www.chineseetymology.org/ ] [ http://www.internationalscientific.org/ ]
See countless ancient variations of each Chinese character (requires input of individual Chinese character) at Richard Sears' website.

Chinese character decomposition @ wikimedia.org. Chinese character decomposition (over 20,0000!) according to their elemental parts. [ http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Chinese_characters_decomposition ]

Dictionaries @ Chinesesavvy.com:
- People's Chinese Dictionary: input English, Pinyin or Chinese character; output with audio, stroke order animation, and many advanced options [ http://app.chinesesavvy.com/services/dictionary/ ]
- Speech Dictionary: conversational sentences classified alphabetically by topic, with audio [ http://app.chinesesavvy.com/services/dictionary/sentence/DictionarySentencePO.ot ]
- Chinese Idioms Dictionary: search input English, Pinyin or Chinese characters; or browse by alphabetical Pinyin [ http://app.chinesesavvy.com/services/dictionary/dic-1.html ]
- Chinese Food and Dishes Dictionary: search input English, Pinyin or Chinese characters ; or browse by alphabetical Pinyin [ http://app.chinesesavvy.com/services/dictionary/dic-5.html ]
Don't forget the many TOOLS at chinesesavvy.com.

Dictionaries @ chinese-tools.com:
- Dictionary [ http://www.chinese-tools.com/tools/dictionary.html ]
- input English, Pinyin or Chinese characters
- output with synonym button, example button, button for detailed Chinese data
- Chinese Dictionary of Example Sentences, accessible via linked button in dictionary entries, also browseable in Pinyin index order [ http://www.chinese-tools.com/chinese/examples/pinyin.html ]
- Chinese Synonyms Thesaurus, input by Chinese character only [ http://www.chinese-tools.com/tools/synonyms.html ], also accessible via linked button in dictionary entries
- Chinese Character Dictionary, detailed Chinese data for every Chinese character, also accessible via linked button in dictionary entries:
- input by Pinyin or Chinese character [ http://www.chinese-tools.com/tools/sinograms.html ]
- browse in Pinyin order [ http://www.chinese-tools.com/tools/sinograms.html?p= ]
- browse by Radical [ http://www.chinese-tools.com/tools/sinograms.html?r= ]
- Chengyu Dictionary of Idioms, input Pinyin or Chinese character [ http://www.chinese-tools.com/chinese/chengyu/dictionary ]
- a portion of the idiom database has some English translation, browseable in Pinyin index order [ http://www.chinese-tools.com/chinese/chengyu/dictionary/english.html ]
- there is also a Pinyin index for browsing the complete idiom database [ http://www.chinese-tools.com/chinese/chengyu/dictionary/all.html ]
Don't forget the many TOOLS at chinese-tools.com.

Dictionaries @ mandarintools.com:
- dictionary: input English, Pinyin or Chinese characters; option to display Chinese output as GIF images [ http://www.mandarintools.com/worddict.html ]
- Chinese Character Dictionary: search for individual Chinese characters; input English, Pinyin, Stroke count or Chinese character [ http://www.mandarintools.com/chardict.html ]; or lookup by Radical [ http://www.mandarintools.com/chardict_rs.html ]
Don't forget the many TOOLS at mandarintools.com.

Dictionaries @ chinesetools.eu:
- dictionary: over ten different input methods, output with synonym button [ http://www.chinesetools.eu/chinese-dictionary/ ]
- Chinese Synonyms Thesaurus, input by Chinese character only [ http://www.chinesetools.eu/tools/synonym/ ], also accessible via linked button in dictionary entries
- Translator [ http://www.chinesetools.eu/tools/chinese-translation/ ]
Don't forget the many TOOLS at chinesetools.eu

LIN Yutang's Chinese-English Dictionary of Modern Usage, online version published by the Chinese University of Hong Kong [ http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/Lindict/ ]
"This is the best Chinese-English (English-Chinese) dictionary available online." says uni-heidelberg.de

Chinese Character Dictionary @ chinesetimeschool.com
[ http://www.chinesetimeschool.com/en-us/study-tools/learn-chinese-characters/ ]
- input Chinese character or Pinyin; output with character stroke animation, character writing practice with mouse, audio, example sentences, English

Audio dictionary @ yes-chinese.com, with example sentences:
- Chinese to English [ http://www.yes-chinese.com/v2010/dict_ce/search.do ] input Pinyin or Chinese characters, output includes Chinese audio
- English to Chinese [ http://www.yes-chinese.com/v2010/dict_ec/search.do ], output includes English audio

Dictionary @ clearchinese.com [ http://www.clearchinese.com/chinese-english-dictionary.htm ]
- input by Chinese characters, Pinyin or English; output has magnify option

Dictionaries @ chinalanguage.com (mirror @ chineselanguage.org):
- translation dictionary
- input English [ http://www.chinalanguage.com/dictionaries/?pageID=Ec/Query ]
- input Pinyin [ http://www.chinalanguage.com/dictionaries/?pageID=Pinyin/Query ]
- Chinese character dictionary, with audio
- search by bushou radical [ http://www.chinalanguage.com/dictionaries/?pageID=CharDict/Bushou ]
- input English [ http://www.chinalanguage.com/dictionaries/?pageID=CharDict/Query:English ]
- input Pinyin [ http://www.chinalanguage.com/dictionaries/?pageID=CharDict/Query:Pinyin ]
- input "Four Corner" digits [ http://www.chinalanguage.com/dictionaries/?pageID=CharDict/Query:FourCorner ]
- input cangjie code [ http://www.chinalanguage.com/dictionaries/?pageID=CharDict/Query:Cangjie ]

Dictionary tools @ zhongwenweb.com, over five different dictionary tools
[ http://www.zhongwenweb.com/worddict.html ]

Dict.cn, English to Chinese online dictionary [ http://dict.cn/en/ ], with example sentences

Chinese dictionary @ HKTV.cc [ http://hktv.cc/cd/hanyupinyin/ ]
multi feature dictionary with stroke order animation, gadgets/widgets and browser integration

Cojak.org [ http://www.cojak.org/ ] dictionary database organized by radical chart

zdic.net, Chinese to Chinese online dictionary, input Chinese characters or Pinyin, output includes audio, character stroke animation and some definitions in English [ http://www.zdic.net/ ]

Chinese dictionary resources @ yourdictionary.com
[ http://www.yourdictionary.com/languages/sinotibe.html ], an extensive range

Google Translate. Don't forget there's [ http://translate.google.com/ ]

SEE ALSO Databases in entry on Chinese Character Etymology