hewgill.com Chinese-English Dictionary Search

Chinese-English Dictionary

This is a Chinese-English dictionary in Mobipocket (.mobi) format suitable for browsing on the Kindle. The dictionary is based on the CC-CEDICT dictionary.

Preview

The source files for the dictionary are HTML and are available for browsing online.

• Dictionary Preview

Download

• Download hanzidict.mobi (about 8 MB, may take several minutes to download to a Kindle)

How to Use the Dictionary

Step 1: The Radical

The first step in looking up a character is to identify the radical. The radicals are listed on the "Radical Index" page.

Example: As an example, we will look up the character 佃. First, find the radical. In this case the radical is 人 (seen as 亻in the character).

Step 2: Stroke Count

The second step is to count the number of strokes not including those of the radical. The characters that match each stroke count are listed on the radical page. If there are more characters than are shown on the radical page, select the number at the beginning of the line to show all characters with that stroke count.

Example: There are 5 strokes in the character in addition to the radical. In this case, the character is shown on the radical page.

Step 3: Character Definition

The character definition is shown with some additional information:

• The Unicode code point number of the character
• A link back to the radical page
• Definitions with pinyin pronunciation
• Link to additional entries in CEDICT starting with this character (if any)

Example:

Step 4: Additional Entries

If there are additional entries starting with the chosen character, they will be shown with definitions. There will also be a (w) which is a link to the English Wiktionary for the entry.

Example:

Limitations

I have been unable to make the Kindle use this dictionary as its default dictionary for looking up words in other books. Although I have been able to create English-English dictionaries, doing the same thing for Chinese-English has proven frustrating. As far as I can tell, the Kindle is unaware that Chinese text can be looked up in a dictionary at all, so it doesn't even try.

License

This dictionary is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.