Anyone know a good electronic dictionary?

wineberry

March 29, 2010, 03:37 AM posted in General Discussion

Hello ChinesePoders,

I am new to ChinesePod and I am looking for electronic dictionary recommendations. I would like one that will work with both characters and pinyin input. I don't need a talking dictionary as long as the dictionary can show pinyin with tone marks as well as characters. I usually find the talking features of electronic dictionaries to be very robotic anyway.

Thanks for any suggestions you can provide!

trevorb

March 29, 2010, 08:24 PM

I'd go with an ipod touch and an App. I have a selection of these things on mine both free and paid for.

hkboy

trevorb,

I'm really thinking about buying the itouch. I guess you like yours pretty good or you wouldn't have mentioned it.

JasonSch

I'd agree with Trevor here. Pleco offers a free, and very good, dictionary. Nciku also just released theirs (essentially an offline, mobile version of the site) for $4.99. It's also excellent and provides a lot of example sentences. (both provide pinyin, both have character finger-writing recognition, and both will continually be updated as the developers develop them)

And to top it all off, there are other study-oriented apps, like the Cpod app, flashcard programs, etc. available for download.

Oh yeah, and it's an MP3 player too. ;)

hkboy

Thanks Jason, They sound good. The one at Qingwen looks good too and has Cantonese pronunciation.

http://itunes.apple.com/app/qingwen-chinese-dictionary/id301300269?mt=8

chenierd

March 29, 2010, 09:35 PM

I personally use:

Yellow Bridge

http://www.yellowbridge.com/chinese/chinese-dictionary.php

Yellow Bridge feels very comprehensive to me and has some nice features like drawing characters. Though it doesn't do much for etomology and some of the less-used features require membership.

Zhongwen.com (occasionally)

http://zhongwen.com/

Zhongwen.com is mostly in tradtional, but I like the emphasis on etemology. Stroke order gifs and some other features are nice for occasional use.

go_manly

I use Yellowbridge too. Unfortunately, most of its definitions have been copied straight from MDBG.net (or they have both copied from the same source). And many of their definitions are just plain wrong. I have corrected at least 20 defintions for them in the past couple of months.

In any case, I believe wineberry was asking for a portable dictionary.

go_manly

March 30, 2010, 02:36 AM

In any case, I believe wineberry was asking for a portable dictionary.

hkboy

March 30, 2010, 05:21 AM

trevorb,

I'm really thinking about buying the itouch. I guess you like yours pretty good or you wouldn't have mentioned it.

JasonSch

March 30, 2010, 05:47 AM

And to top it all off, there are other study-oriented apps, like the Cpod app, flashcard programs, etc. available for download.

Oh yeah, and it's an MP3 player too. ;)

laorui

April 09, 2010, 11:15 AM

I bought a HP iPAQ and loaded it with PLECO. I haven't used a paper dictionary since then.

ouyangjun116

April 09, 2010, 11:42 AM

I'll second PLECO. I have it loaded on my iPhone and I never have to use another dictionary. It is by far the best.

tvan

April 09, 2010, 12:30 PM

For the money, I'd take Pleco. However, the ICED ABC dictionary seems to be more comprehensive, and offers definitions and additional word combinations of each character in a (multi-character) entry. I've found it helpful at times in understanding why a combination of characters can take on a meaning that is not readily apparent.

However, at $34.99, it's quite expensive. Anyway, I use PLECO and ICED on an iTouch and would recommend either one.