Find a Chinese English dictionary to suit your level and learning style with these dictionary reviews.
Tuttle Concise Dictionary
A good Chinese English dictionary with plenty of example sentences in Pinyin Romanization and simplified characters.
Oxford Beginner's Chinese Dictionary
This is a good Chinese English dictionary for the first year of study. Its focus on Pinyin means it is best used to translate English words to Chinese. If you are learning Chinese characters, a more advanced dictionary might be a better choice. This dictionary uses simplified characters, so it is not suitable if if you're studying in Taiwan or wish to learn traditional Chinese characters.
Langenscheidt's Pocket Dictionary Chinese/English English/Chinese
This compact Chinese English dictionary has 40,000 entries covering idiomatic expressions and up-to-date words. Pinyin romanization is used for indexing, and a useful radical table aids locating Chinese characters. This is another dictionary that emphasizes simplified Chinese characters, so students of traditional characters will find it to be of limited value.
Far East Chinese English Dictionary
This dictionary is aimed at students in Taiwan. It uses traditional Chinese characters and most of the phonetics are zhu yin, although Pinyin and Gwoyeu Romatzyh phonetics are also used for the individual characters. There are about 120,000 entries ranging from Chinese classics to modern colloquial language. There are also reference sections for names of famous people, famous events, and geographical names.
Chinese English Online Translating Dictionary
Based on the CEDICT dictionary. Searches can be conducted in Chinese (using either the GB, Big5, or Unicode encodings), pinyin, or English. Can be used online or downloaded as part of Dim Sum Tools.ZhongWen.com
An interesting website with several different Chinese English dictionaries. Words can be searched by English, Pinyin, radical, or stroke count. All Chinese characters on the site are linked to a database providing a cross-reference to character usage. This site also hosts the Chinese Characters Dictionary Web - a crosslinked web of dictionaries that accesses multiple online dictionaries.MDBG Chinese English Dictionary
This is another online CEDICT-based public domain Chinese English dictionary project. Words can be searched by Chinese, Pinyin or English Definition, and there is an auto-complete function in the search box. Search results show pinyin, Chinese characters (both traditional and simplified) and have an audio pronunciation guide.AM101 Electronic English Chinese Translator / Dictionary
An electronic Chinese English dictionary that translates English sentences, phrases, and words. The accuracy is quite good for individual words and short phrases, but longer sentences can contain errors. However, it is usually good enough to get your meaning across. Primarily aimed at the traveler, this dictionary also contains useful reference sections for Mandarin students such as business, legal and medical terms, and common English and Chinese idioms.
