Best english-chinese dictionary for Google Android?

[mikelove]

If I could afford an iphone and pleco, I'd do that in a flash. What's the next best thing?

Pleco's actually on Android now, it's a beta version but most of our testers report that it's very stable; you can get it at:

pleco.com/android

Free version is quite functional, in fact it more than matches up feature-wise with any paid Android Chinese dictionary, though there are lots of lovely paid add-ons available too (and more coming).

[Iriya]

There's now an Android version of Goldendict. It supports all the popular dictionary formats, including StarDict, Babylon, Lingvo and even Lingoes (there are many Chinese dictionaries in this format). With it you can have pretty much any desktop dictionary in your pocket. It's a paid app, though, so it's a pain to get it in China (there's a free ad supported version, but it has a limit of 5 dictionaries.)

An excellent free alternative is Fora Dictionary. It also supports StarDict and Lingvo (Babylon is also possible as there are many Babylon->Stardict converters on the web). It has a nice, fully customizable interface. A minor downside is that you first have to index/convert dictionaries on your PC. It supports voice search, which is frighteningly accurate on Android. You can have a Chinese person say something in your phone, and it will get it right 95% of the time.

Personally I use Fora (haven't figured how to get GoldenDict yet) with all the popular StarDict Chinese dictionaries, all the official Ch-Ru-Ch Lingvo dictionaries and a monthly updated copy of CEDICT (I use regular expressions to convert it to the StarDict format, can share them if you need them).

Oh, and 海词词典 (dict.cn) is not too bad as well, has many new words not available elsewhere + numerous example sentences.

And the nciku dictionary is supposedly pretty good as well, but I haven't tried it.

[creamyhorror]

Awesome, Iriya, looks like I'm going to go for Fora once I get an Android. Voice search sounds cool too. And a monthly updated copy of CEDICT...you've put in some legwork it seems. Thanks for the info!

[mnanon]

What is a very extensive dictionary for Chinese-English? I am looking for a dictionary which is not user edited but something like http://www.amazon.com/Merriam-Websters-Chinese-English-Dictionary-Gaelle-Amiot-Cadey/dp/0877798591/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1320249040&sr=1-9 but in an App for android?

[Iriya]

Links removed, pirate content (pm if we were wrong)

Should be enough for you.

[mnanon]

Thank you Iriya, do you know something which is more user friendly for beginners? Something like Hanping but which is based on a more reputable source?

[skylee]

Any good recommendations on android apps of offline English -> Traditional Chinese dictionaries and offline English -> English dictionaries?

[Iriya]

If want a "user friendly" app, then you can try:

海词词典 http://dict.cn/phone/andorid_download_detail.html

金山词霸 http://mobile.iciba.com/powerword/download.html

有道词典 http://m.youdao.com/helps/pw_download.html

nciku

Or you can buy Pleco if you have cash to burn. It's still in beta, but fully functional otherwise.

[mikelove]

Or you can buy Pleco if you have cash to burn. It's still in beta, but fully functional otherwise.

We actually have an awful lot of functionality in our free app, including a non-user-created dictionary with tons of example sentences, so while we're certainly happy to have people give us money, our goal is that even our free app be competitive with (most of) the paid Android dictionary apps out there.

[Iriya]

There are 1400+ dictionaries in the Mdict format (which BlueDict uses), all of them can be downloaded absolutely for free. I can't really see how you can compete with that.

Your audience is well-off Westerners with a passing interest in Chinese, who won't bother searching the Chinese websites for a better solution.

Edited November 3, 2011 at 05:49 AM by imron
Removed link to pirated dictionaries. People who are bothered can search for themselves.

[skylee]

I have been driven away by the warnings on the android version on pleco's website. I will take a look at it again.

[mikelove]

There are 1400 dictionaries in the Mdict format (which BlueDict uses), all of them can be downloaded absolutely for free. I can't really see how you can compete with that.

And how many of those dictionaries were legally licensed from their publishers?

Your audience is well-off Westerners with a passing interest in Chinese, who won't bother searching the Chinese websites for a better solution.

I wonder how they would react to being described in that way. I'll withhold my own reaction (vitriolic though it would most certainly be) to avoid turning this into a flame war.

[AdamD]

Your audience is well-off Westerners with a passing interest in Chinese, who won't bother searching the Chinese websites for a better solution.

I've spent the past two years studying Chinese, and last week I got my first university accreditation. The cash I 'burned' on Pleco contributed heavily toward my 96% mark for the written exam.

[imron]

Your audience is well-off Westerners with a passing interest in Chinese, who won't bother searching the Chinese websites for a better solution.

As someone who's had a ‘passing interest’ in Chinese for the last 10 or so years, I have to say that Pleco is probably one the most useful investments a student of Chinese can make, and something I use daily (and not because I haven't been bothered to look for anything else). I'm not going to go over all the reasons why in this post because there is quite literally thread after thread after thread on the forums talking about it. There's a reason why you pretty much only hear good things about Pleco.

[mnanon]

I have Pleco, is the Defrancis dictionary the best one currently available to use with Pleco? Is it up to date?

I bought the stroke order add-on which is great.

So if I get a the Golden Dictionary or the Fora Dictionary, I can buy a Chinese-English desktop dictionary and use it on my phone? Where can I buy them?

[roddy]

Passing interest . . . I wish . . .

No links to pirated content, thanks. If you're in doubt, don't post the link.

[skylee]

Pirated content ... I think there are a lot of links to such things on this website .... anyways this doesn't mean that I agree with Iriya.

I just want a Chinese-Chinese dictionary and an English-English dictionary (that are preferably error-free, especially with the use of traditional characters) on my Samsung i9100. I have downloaded the beta/droid version of Pleco, and it looks good. But as my needs are not the same as most Chinese learners' I think there is more info than I need and this can be distracting. I have also downloaded Hanping, also mentioned on this thread, which also looks good, as well as colordict, which is praised by most users.

I have tested them briefly. I input these in the three dicts - savvy, collegiate, 春寒料峭. Colordict has the first two but not the third (conclusion - better use it to look up English words), Pleco and Hanping have the Chinese phrase but not one or both of the English words (conclusion - use them to look up Chinese). I am quite content for the moment.

I hope the Taiwan MOE can provide mobile versions of its dictionaries.

[Hofmann]

I may have just witnessed

discussion board politics (dun dun dunn!)

[roddy]

Policy on discussion of pirated content is in the T&C's, see here, and hasn't changed for years. If you don't like it or think we're mistaken, you're welcome to start a topic in the Help section or give this a bump. If you are looking for an English-Chinese dictionary for Android, you're welcome to post here.

Will tidy this topic up later.

[Sarevok]

I've had a passing interest in Chinese for more than 7 years, been using Pleco for about 5. I wouldn't describe myself as particularly well-off, but I don't regret any cash burnt on Pleco (and will happily burn more if they release some interesting new dictionary in the future).

I know about MDict and I've been using a few dictionaries in this format for years, mainly those highly specialized technical ones, for which I couldn't find any suitable replacement (this is perhaps the only area, which I find somewhat lacking in Pleco). If we compare the UX and feature-richness, then MDict doesn't even come close...