Best Online Dictionaries

bababardwan

September 07, 2011, 06:25 AM

Hi he2xu4,

You may find this recent Qing Wen on translation tools interesting:

http://chinesepod.com/lessons/translation-tools

humanitad-china

September 18, 2011, 03:19 AM

http://www.jukuu.com/

is not a dictionary, but a great resource for studying new words and grammar. it has a connection with mdgb. You can click the Jukuu button next to any word on mdgb, and you will be able to read 10 example sentences from the jukuu website.  

 

Using Baidu dictionary is great for learning how to define more advanced chinese words using simples chinese words. 

So is this site:   http://xh.5156edu.com/html5/93928.html

 

http://dict.variants.moe.edu.tw/main.htm

 

www.zhongwen.com    -  is a GREAT dictionary, but tricky to use. It is great for learning the etymology of characters. It's a site based on a book.

 

finally,  

http://www.wordbuddy.com/index.php?intro=1  

-  is a funny site where people give different mnemonic devices to help them remember how to write characters. 

ouyangjun116

September 19, 2011, 12:27 PM

are there any online Chengyu dictionaries that go into the detail of the story behind the Chengyu?

tingyun

September 19, 2011, 06:02 PM

Baidu Baike is pretty great for that - generally it will have a section that quotes the original use and then translates it into modern chinese, together with needed background info (which is essentially the story for most of them). If there does happen to be a playful fable type story associated with it, it will generally also have that in another section, and it will also almost always have breakdown explanation of each charecter.  Here's an example 风马牛不相及.  http://baike.baidu.com/view/94934.htm

My first post in over a month (and might be another month or so before I make it back) - work has me pretty busy.  Hope everyone has been doing well in their studies,

 

he2xu4

September 23, 2011, 09:41 PM

Thanks to all for the suggestions.

I've been using mdbg for awhile and never saw the juuku link to sample sentences. I've been going to nciku for sample sentences, which it has plenty of, but its translation feature is awkward.

I like Wordbuddy for the mental aids on how to remember words.

I haven't gotten to idioms yet, but I bookmarked Baidu Baike for future use.

 

he2xu4

October 01, 2011, 06:14 PM

Juuku is excellent. It has a distribution chart for each word which tells how popular each different meaning attributed to a word is. Dunno how accurate it is, but it is interesting.