On the Web
- Lin Yutang's Chinese-English Dictionary of Modern UsageThis is a highly regarded dictionary, now freely available online. Set encoding for traditional Chinese.
- ncikuThis is an excellent website. You can look up characters by radical, draw them, and hear the pronunciation. There are even sample sentences.
- YellowBridge Chinese-English Dictionary for BeginnersVery flexible look up system - by pronunciation, English meaning, stroke counts, or use the handwriting input option.
- Zhongwen.com 中文.comWebsite created by Rick Harbaugh designed to help students learn Chinese character etymologies.
Dictionaries in the Library
ABC Chinese-English Dictionary by Call Number: SC Neilson Reference/1 North PL1455 .A24 1996ISBN: 0824817443This dictionary is arranged by pronunciation (pinyin). There is an index at the back for looking up characters by their stroke counts.
You will find Chinese dictionaries in 3 places in the Neilson Library: Reference, East Asian Collection, and the Neilson Stacks. So please look carefully at the location listed to the left of the call number to make sure you look in the right place. The dictionaries in Reference do not circulate, but you may check out any of the ones in the East Asian Collection or Neilson Stacks. Other libraries in the Five Colleges also have a range of dictionaries that you may want to borrow.
Chinese dictionaries tend to be organized in two ways: alphabetically by pronunciation or by stroke count.
To find Chinese-English dictionaries do a subject search using the following terms:
Subject begins with Chinese language -- Dictionaries -- English
You may also want to consult specialized dictionaries like 成语词典
Subject begins with Chinese language -- Idioms -- Dictionaries.
Here are some recommended titles:
Chinese-English-French kuaisu dictionary by Call Number: SC Neilson Reference/1 North ; PL1455 .S36 1997ISBN: 2763773966The author has devised a "fast" look up system for Chinese characters.
Far East Chinese-English DictionaryCall Number: SC Neilson Reference/1 North ; PL1455 .Y835 1992ISBN: 9576122309This dictionary uses the traditional radical order.
Oxford Language Dictionaries
The library has a subscription to Oxford language dictionaries.
- Paper Dictionary & CD-ROM