Chinese-English Talking Dictionary Features Summary

Free Features

Search by Chinese, Pinyin, or English.
Wildcard matches allows you to search for words matching a Chinese or pinyin pattern simply by entering an asterisk as the placeholder for zero or more characters (search by Chinese) or pinyin syllables (search by Pinyin).
Search by handwriting recognition. Finding a Chinese character when you don't already know its pronunciation has traditionally been a daunting process even for native Chinese speakers. With our handwritten Chinese recognition all you need to do is to draw the character using your mouse in the proper stroke order. As you do that, the possible matches are shown on the right. When the desired character appears, simply click on it.
Search by Radical and Stroke Count. This is the traditional way to search for Chinese characters. You'll need to make an educated guess as to which is the radical of the character.
Search commonly used characters by their structure and components. The obvious and modern extension to the traditional search by radicals, our Components search tab allows you to locate characters that have the specified character structure (e.g. left/right or top/bottom) and the specific components. The components can be characters or radicals. A great way to find characters that are related by their meaning, pronunciation, or structure. However, if you are simply trying to locate a specific character whose shape you already know, it is easier to use the handwriting recognizer.

Word Decomposition into their component words and characters, a great way to remember new words and a unique feature of the Chinese language. View Sample.
Words pronounced for you just by clicking on the white speech bubble icon.
Words sharing the same head word or tail word lets you gain a better understanding of a word's meaning and proper usage. View Sample.
Proficiency test level, according to popular standards such as the HSK.
Character Details. Detailed information about individual characters, including a list of commonly used words that use the character. View Sample.
Etymological Decomposition. Our Etymology Explorer allows you to drill down into the character components one layer at a time or how other characters incorporate the current one. This unique feature helps you visualize how characters relate to each other semantically and phonetically, greatly facilitating their memorization. View Sample
Stroke Order. View animated stroke order for writing the character. Supports all characters in modern use. View Sample
Extensive Integrated Database of over 200,000 entries is seamlessly integrated with our database of over 20,000 characters. Our character dictionary provides details about individual characters, their etymology, stroke order, etc.

In addition to the free features:

Partial matches allows to easily find words that begin with, end with or contain certain characters or pinyin syllables. In addition, you can control the length of the words matched.
Fuzzy pinyin match makes it easy to find words even when you are not sure of the correct pronunciation. You can control the degree of fuzziness from just ignoring tones to forcing matches pinyin syllables that sound similar to Chinese learners, such as the z/zh initials and the n/ng finals.
Control the length of the Chinese words matched.

Derived words helps understand proper word usage.
Sound alike words helps beginning learners.
Topical word lists gives you instant access to a list of words in the same topic. For example, when viewing the entry for "apple", you can easily access the list of fruit names.
Search any character by its structure and components.
Additional etymological character data. Lists the characters that contain the current character, either as a phonetic components or as a non-phonetic component.