Using the dictionary

The dictionary is the largest thing on the site and the part that needs no account, no plan and no credits. Over 13,000 entries, every one banded to an HSK 3.0 level. This article is about getting more out of an entry than the translation at the top of it.

Finding a word

1. Search from anywhere — The magnifier in the header searches hanzi, pinyin and English at once. ni3, nǐ, ni and "you" all find 你.
2. Or browse by level — The dictionary hub splits the whole corpus into HSK 1 through 7–9, so you can read a band rather than hunt a word.
3. Or tap it where you found it — Any Chinese character anywhere on the site opens a card, and the card links through to the full entry.

What is in an entry

An entry is a page, not a line. Which sections appear depends on the word — a single character gets etymology and decomposition, a set phrase gets an idiom spotlight — but a well-populated entry can carry all of these:

• Meanings — Every sense, not just the first, each with its own example sentences.
• Pronunciation — Tone-marked pinyin, the tone contour, and a native recording.
• Writing — Stroke-order animation you can replay and trace.
• Etymology and decomposition — Where the character came from and what it is built from — for single characters, the section that makes them stop being arbitrary.
• Confusions — The words this one gets mixed up with, and how to tell them apart. Often the most useful section on the page.
• Word family — Compounds built from this character, and words that contain it. One entry becomes twenty.
• Usage notes and cultural notes — When to use it, when not to, and what a native speaker hears that a dictionary gloss does not carry.
• A podcast — On many entries — a short spoken piece about the word. Free to play.

Getting more out of it

1. Read the Confusions section first — If you already half-know the word, this is where the actual gap is. Knowing 会 is not the problem; knowing when it is not 能 is.
2. Follow the word family — Learning 电 alone is one word. Following it into 电话, 电脑, 电影 is four, and they will stick better because they share a piece.
3. Add it to flashcards from the entry — One tap. The word enters your review schedule rather than being something you looked up and forgot by evening.
4. Say the examples out loud — The example sentences are graded to the word’s own level, so they are readable rather than aspirational.