Search Tips
Pinyin Search
To search for Chinese words in Pinyin, you can enter the letters of each syllable, optionally followed by the tone of the syllable. You can separate individual syllables by spaces. The following tone numbers can be used:
| Tone Number | Description |
|---|---|
| 1 | First tone (high level tone) |
| 2 | Second tone (rising tone) |
| 3 | Third tone (dipping or falling-rising tone) |
| 4 | Fourth tone (falling tone) |
| 0 or 5 | Neutral tone |
Example:
If you want to search for 中文 zhōngwén, you can enter "zhong1wen2", "zhong1wen",
"zhongwen2", "zhongwen", "zhong1 wen2", "zhong1 wen", "zhong wen2", or "zhong wen".
Sometimes the search text can represent more than one syllable, e.g. "xian" can denote a single syllable (xian) or two syllables (xi an). Therefore, the application tries to split the entered text into as many syllable combinations as possible and returns in case of "xian" both monosyllabic words (e.g. 先 xiān) and bisyllabic words (e.g. 西安 Xī'ān).
If you want to search for bisyllabic words only, you can enter a space character between both syllables, e.g "xi an".
To enter the umlaut "ü" as in "lü" or "nü", you can enter the umlaut "ü", the letter "v", or the letter "u" followed by a colon, for example: "lü", "lv", "lu:".
The Pinyin 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 expression, 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", "beibao", "beijing" etc.
- Enter "bei1?" if you want to look up all words starting with "bēi" and with a length of one or two syllables, e.g. "bēi", "bēibāo", "bēizi" 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", "beijing", "beijingren" etc.
- Enter "?jing" if you want to look up all words ending with "jing" and with a length of one or two syllables, e.g. "jing", "anjing", "beijing" etc.
- Enter "*jing" if you want to look up all words ending with "jing" and with a length of one or more syllables, e.g. "jing", "beijing", "zuotoujing" etc.
Zhuyin-/Bopomofo Search
Instead of Pinyin, you can also use Zhuyin (Bopomofo) to search for dictionary entries. Just enter Zhuyin characters into the search field.
To specify the tone for the syllable, either append the tone number or the tone marker to the syllable. The following tone markers are supported:
| Tone | Tone Marker | Example |
|---|---|---|
| First tone | n/a | ㄚ |
| Second tone | ˊ | ㄚˊ |
| Third tone | ˇ | ㄚˇ |
| Fourth tone | ˋ | ㄚˋ |
| Neutral tone | ˙ | ㄚ˙ |
The Zhuyin search also supports wildcards:
| Wildcard | Description |
|---|---|
| ? | Represents a placeholder for zero or one Zhuyin character. |
| * | Represents a placeholder for zero or more Zhuyin characters. |
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.