Best english-chinese dictionary database (preferably free)

[westmeadboy]

I'm looking for an english-chinese equivalent of something like CEDICT that I can plug into a dictionary app I am writing.

Any suggestions?

[gato]

You could try stardict. Its copyright situation is a bit murky, but...

I mentioned it here before:

http://www.chinese-forums.com/showthread.php?p=200927&highlight=stardict#post200927

Re: Pinyin Hanzi offline database?

You can see the format for a stardict dictionary here:

http://www.chinese-forums.com/showthread.php?p=208411&highlight=stardict#post208411

Re: 37 frequently used chengyu

Since stardict's source code is available, you can probably just copy their dictionary reading code. It didn't look too complicated to me.

[renzhe]

Here is a list of all Chinese dictionaries stardict uses. You can click on a link above for Taiwanese (traditional-character) versions.

I was surprised to see how many of them were GPL'd.

[c_redman]

I was surprised to see how many of them were GPL'd.

Not as surprised as the copyright owners would be

http://stardict.sourceforge.net/Dictionaries.php

Notice: As the dictionaries are collected from the internet, we can't make sure of each dictionary's license, if you find your dictionaries are downloadable here, which is not allowed, please mail me, i will remove it soon.

[westmeadboy]

Thanks guys. Looks like a lot of E-C dictionaries!

Any one recommended in particular? I don't want something too bloated. For example, CC-CEDICT works fine for my chinese-english needs.

From what I understand about GPL (and I really don't know much about licenses), I would need to make my code publicly available which is something I'd rather not do. Two potential workarounds for this:

1. Find a E-C dictionary with a more suitable license (maybe something like creative commons?)

2. My app is actually an engine which can be used with any number of dictionaries. Does this mean only the dictionary part needs to be GPL and I can release the engine under a different license?

[jbradfor]

I am not a lawyer, but I play one on the internet.

The GPL only applies to the dictionary. So you can have whatever license you want for your engine.

In this case, the part of the GPL that applies to you is that if you distribute code that includes the GPL'ed dictionary, you need to make the GPL'ed part available to anyone free of charge (or for a nominal distribution fee). In this case, even if you were to charge for your engine, clearly indicating that the dictionary is GPL and providing a URL to where it can be downloaded would cover you.

[renzhe]

Out of curiosity -- why not use CC-CEDICT if it suits your needs?

I mean, you can use it in the other direction too, like MDBG does.

[westmeadboy]

I think of the Chinese-English dictionary more for people learning chinese, but an English-Chinese dictionary for chinese-speaking people learning english.

I know that I wouldn't like to use an english-chinese dictionary (my chinese isn't good enough) and I suppose its the same the other way around for chinese users.

[mikelove]

Here's the source link for the LDC English-Chinese wordlist we distribute as a free add-on:

http://projects.ldc.upenn.edu/Chinese/LDC_ch.htm

No Pinyin, but there are utilities around to add that automatically. There is however the restriction that the file can't be sold as part of a commercial package, but we believe we're complying with that by not including the LDC database in our main installer program and instead making it available as a separate, freely-downloadable add-on that just happens to be in our file format. That might not work in your case if you're distributing the whole thing through Android Market, though. (and is probably the reason why nobody seems to offer this file in an iPhone product yet, though we are in ours, again as a separately-downloadable add-on)

[c_redman]

In case I wasn't clear before, those StarDict downloads are *highly* unlikely to actually be GPL licensed. Just look at the list and see the ones are both GPL and removed because the actual copyright owner complained. If they were really GPL, there would be no need to remove them. Anyway, use at your own risk.

[roddy]

Good luck getting that onto any kind of app store . . .

"Erm, have you actually licensed these dictionaries?"

"Oh, there's no need. They're GPL'ed, a Chinese website said so."

[westmeadboy]

@mikelove - thanks for that link, mike.

@c_redman - yeah, the GPL seems like the best case scenario, so I was trying to figure out if that works. If it does, then its about figuring out which ones really can be used under GPL.

@roddy - the Android Market is a very different animal to the Appstore. There are already more than ten Star Dict dictionaries on the Android Market. I haven't checked which ones (so it could be they are all fine) but I would be really surprised if anyone from Google is contacting the developer for licensing confirmation. Anyway, I don't see any way to grab the code for those dictionaries which I think means they are not conforming to the GPL license.