Best Chinese-English Dictionary?

[kimberlyandkeith]

Hi!

I'm looking for the best Chinese-English dictionary. I'd like it to have characters, pinyin, and English definition.

I have a few "pocket" ones but I would really like a comprehensive paper dictionary. I use mdbg often, but sometimes I want something "in paper".

Any thoughts on the very best one for an English speaker learning Chinese? (Simplified, traditional is not important to me)

Kimberly

[elina]

Don’t know if it’s the best Chinese-English dictionary, but the following 2 dictionaries are much liked by our foreign customers (don’t forget to click the pictures in the “”Selected parts” to see inside).

A Practical Dictionary of Chinese in Graphic Components (Chinese-English Edition)

http://www.lovemandarin.com/book.asp?id=3144

Chinese-English Double Explanation Dictionary (Edition Binding)

http://www.lovemandarin.com/book.asp?id=2900

[gato]

The ABC Dictionary edited by John DeFrancis is probably the best for your needs.

See

http://www.chinesestudies.hawaii.edu/abc/

and

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/5695-chinese-english-electronic-dictionaries&highlight=abc+dictionary

[xianu]

I am really fond of the Times New Chinese-English dictionary published Federal Publications in Singapore. It is pinyin based, with radical index, and includes full-form characters in the main entry. It is GREAT for modern standard Chinese. The main thing that is great about it is that the definitions are really thorough, with parts of speech and tons of examples for each type of usage. Even better is that there are very thorough grammatical explanations included in the definitons. I recommend it to anyone (english speaker) learning Chinese, and always include it in the list of recommended dictionaries for my students. The biggest problem is that I have not been able to get another copy of it. my teachers at ICLP purchased copies of this dictionary for the students, from a connection in China, and I have commissioned everyone I know to get me multiple copies of the book if they can find it, but so far, no one has.

[horas]

I am really fond of the Times New Chinese-English dictionary published Federal Publications in Singapore. It is pinyin based, with radical index, and includes full-form characters in the main entry.

*

http://www.chinaconnectiononline.com/dictnrs.htm

A handy English-Chinese reference is the Times Advanced English-Chinese Pinyin Dictionary, compiled by Wu Zhaoyi and others and published by Federal Publications, Singapore and HK (ISBN 981-01-3909-8 paper). Despite its title, it is rather simple, trading off depth in each entry for larger type and a fair number (about 10,000) of entries. It does not include the traditional character where there is a simplified one.

[Lugubert]

I'm very happy with my "A Chinese-English Dictionary (Revised Edition)", ISBN 7-5600-0739-2. Pinyin order, character lookup (radical + stroke no., including traditional) and extensive English renderings, often with examples. Very often, it seems to be identical to Wenlin and to PlecoDict.

[ronmolenda]

I'm a big fan of

Chinese Characters: A Genealogy and Dictionary

by Rick Harbaugh

ISBN-13: 978-0966075007

It has explanations of the character components, which is a lifesaver for those of us studying traditional characters, and the pinyin dictionary has common two-character words for those times when you didn't get the tone. It literally changed everything for me.

[null]

The ABC Dictionary for sure

[Mark Yong]

I would recommend the "Far East Chinese-English Dictionary" (ISBN: 9576122309). Next to the now-outdated "Mathews' Chinese-English Dictionary" (which I have used for over two decades now), it has the largest repository of characters (in excess of 7,300) among all the Chinese-English dictionaries available to date, along with a wide range of word usages. Being of Taiwanese origin, this dictionary is in Traditional characters (which I personally prefer!).