🇨🇳 Best Chinese (Mandarin) dictionaries for beginners

The default desktop lookup for most learners: search by pinyin, character, English or handwriting, then drill into components, stroke order and example words. It also has a bulk text annotation tool that adds pinyin above a whole passage, which is handy for prepping reading material. Plain and ad-light, but purely a reference — no lessons, no spaced repetition.

Over 100 language editions; the English edition alone has millions of entries covering hundreds of languages, with IPA, declension and conjugation tables, etymologies and usage notes that commercial apps usually paywall. The etymology sections are quietly one of the best vocabulary-retention tools available. Being crowd-sourced, coverage is uneven and rare entries can be wrong — cross-check anything unusual against a native-language dictionary.

Around 6 million words recorded by native speakers across 400+ languages, usually with several accents per word so you can hear regional variation. Free to search on the site; the paid tiers are aimed at API users and bulk audio downloads. Indispensable for names, place names and anything a TTS voice would mangle — many learners wire it directly into Anki for card audio.

A free, offline-capable Chinese-English dictionary with stroke-order animations, handwriting and audio search, plus paid add-ons for OCR (point your camera at a menu or sign), document reading and extra dictionaries. The free version alone is better than any competitor; the paid bundles are one-time purchases rather than a subscription. Its flashcard system is powerful but fiddly — many people pair Pleco for lookup with a separate SRS. Simplified and traditional both supported.