Chinese Dictionary
One page per word: simplified and traditional forms, pinyin with tone marks, native audio, every English sense, a stroke-order animation, a character-by-character breakdown and the words that share a character or a sound. 4,995 words, free, no sign-up.
Find a word
The 600 most common words
In the order a learner meets them: HSK 1 first, then HSK 2, and so on. Learning them in this order is the single highest-return thing a beginner can do, because a few hundred words cover most of what is actually said.
Nothing here matches that. Try the translator or an HSK word list — they cover all 4,995 words.
Browse every word by HSK level
The complete lists live on the HSK pages, where you can search, sort, hear each word and save it to your review deck. Every hanzi in those tables links to its dictionary entry.
Frequently asked questions
Is this Chinese dictionary free?
Yes. All 4,995 word pages are free, with no account, no sign-up and no download. The site is supported by ads.
What is on a dictionary word page?
The simplified and traditional forms, pinyin with tone marks, native-voice audio, every English sense the dictionary lists, a stroke-order animation, a character-by-character breakdown of multi-character words, example sentences where we have them, and the related words that share a character or a pronunciation.
Which words are included?
The 4,995 words of the official HSK 1-6 vocabulary lists, ordered by level so the most common come first. Words outside those lists still open a page when our dictionary knows them, so a link from a translation result or a graded reader lands somewhere useful.
How do I look up a word I cannot type?
Paste the sentence into the Chinese to Pinyin translator instead — it breaks any text into words and shows the pinyin and meaning of each one, then links every word to its dictionary page.
Does the dictionary show traditional characters?
Yes. Each entry shows the traditional form when it differs from the simplified one, and the Simplified to Traditional Converter will convert a whole passage.
Where the entries come from
Every meaning and pinyin on a word page is read from the same dictionary that powers the translators — there is no second copy, so a word page and a translation can never disagree. Words are the official HSK 1–6 lists, and anything else the dictionary knows opens a page too.