Search Tips
Jyutping Search
To search for Chinese words in Jyutping, you can enter the letters of each syllable, optionally followed by the tone of the syllable, and optionally separated by spaces. The following tone numbers can be used:
| Tone Number | Description |
|---|---|
| 1 | First tone (high level tone) |
| 2 | Second tone (mid rising tone) |
| 3 | Third tone (mid level tone) |
| 4 | Fourth tone (low falling tone) |
| 5 | Fifth tone (low rising tone) |
| 6 | Sixth tone (low level tone) |
Example:
If you want to search for 粵語 Jyut⁶jyu⁵, you can enter "jyut6jyu5", "jyut6jyu", "jyutjyu5",
"jyutjyu", "jyut6 jyu5", "jyut6 jyu", "jyut jyu5", or "jyut jyu".
The Jyutping search supports two kinds of wildcards:
| Wildcard | Description |
|---|---|
| ? | Represents a placeholder for zero or one syllable. |
| * | Represents a placeholder for zero or more syllables. |
You can enter wildcards anywhere in the search text, at the beginning, at the end, or in the middle of the search text, for example:
- Enter "bei?" if you want to look up all words starting with "bei" and with a length of one or two syllables, e.g. "bei", "beiming", "beitaan" etc.
- Enter "bei1?" if you want to look up all words starting with "bei¹" and with a length of one or two syllables, e.g. "bei¹", "bei¹ming⁴", "bei¹taan³" etc.
- Enter "bei*" if you want to look up all words starting with "bei" and with a length of one or more syllables, e.g. "bei", "beigaau", "beigaaukap" etc.
- Enter "?sing" if you want to look up all words ending with "sing" and with a length of one or two syllables, e.g. "sing", "baaksing", "fuising" etc.
- Enter "*sing" if you want to look up all words ending with "sing" and with a length of one or more syllables, e.g. "sing", "aising", "Bakdausing" etc.
Character Search
To search for Chinese words using Chinese characters, simply type in the characters in the search box. You can use simplified or traditional characters and you can use the following wildcards as placeholders:
| Wildcard | Description |
|---|---|
| ? | Represents a placeholder for zero or one character. |
| * | Represents a placeholder for zero or more characters. |
You can enter wildcards anywhere in the search text, at the beginning, at the end, or in the middle of the search text, for example:
- Enter "中?" if you want to look up all words starting with "中" and with a length of one or two characters, e.g. "中", "中文", "中餐" etc.
- Enter "中*" if you want to look up all words starting with "中" and with a length of one or more characters, e.g. "中", "中文", "中文字" etc.
- Enter "?星" if you want to look up all words ending with "星" and with a length of one or two characters, e.g. "星", "火星", "金星" etc.
- Enter "*星" if you want to look up all words ending with "星" and with a length of one or more characters, e.g. "星", "巨星", "矮行星" etc.
English, German, French, Hungarian
The search for non-Chinese words is a full-text search of the English, German, French, or Hungarian translations of all entries in the dictionary. For example, if you enter the word "land", all Chinese entries in the dictionary that contain the word "land" in the translation will be listed, e.g. "land", "land-based", or "land-owner". The order of the listed entries depends on the sort settings in the search settings.
If you enter more than one word, separated by spaces, all entries are listed that contain all entered words in their translation. For example, if you enter "black white", you will get entries with the translations "black and white", "black-white" or "black-and-white film".
Wildcards are also supported. You can use the following placeholders:
| Wildcard | Description |
|---|---|
| ? | Represents a placeholder for zero or one letter. |
| * | Represents a placeholder for zero or more letters. |
You can enter wildcards anywhere in the search text, at the beginning, at the end, or in the middle of the search text, for example:
- Enter "a?" if you want to look up all entries containing words in their translation starting with "a" and with a length of one or two letters, e.g. "A", "a", "ah" etc.
- Enter "a*" if you want to look up all entries containing words in their translation starting with "a" and with a length of one or more letters, e.g. "a", "ah", "auto" etc.
- Enter "?a" if you want to look up all entries containing words in their translation ending with "a" and with a length of one or two letters, e.g. "a", "ha", "pa" etc.
- Enter "*a" if you want to look up all entries containing words in their translation ending with "a" and with a length of one or more letters, e.g. "a", "ha", "sea" etc.