Pleco Chinese Dictionary 9+

Handwriting, OCR, flashcards

Pleco Inc.

    • Free
    • Offers In-App Purchases

Screenshots

Description

Pleco is the ultimate Chinese learning companion: an integrated dictionary / document reader / flashcard system with fullscreen handwriting input and live OCR, from a company that's been making the world's best mobile Chinese learning apps since 2001.

Major features: ($ = paid add-on)

• Amazing dictionaries. We offer two free built-in dictionaries: the popular open-source CC-CEDICT, with over 110,000 frequently-updated entries, and our own PLC dictionary, with 125,000 entries, parts of speech, and over 25,000 example sentences (with Pinyin). More than two dozen other dictionaries are available as free and paid ($) add-ons, including licensed titles from well-known publishers like Oxford, Longman, FLTRP, Tuttle, SLPH, and Commercial Press.

• Powerful merged search: look up words by Chinese characters, Pinyin (spaces / tones optional), or English, with support for wildcards and full-text search. And no need to tediously flip between all of those dictionaries to find a word - just type in your search term and instantly get a combined, frequency-sorted result list.

• Links and cross-references: easily look up character components, break down words into individual characters, look up lists of words containing a particular character, and search across all dictionaries for example sentences containing a word.

• Gorgeous typography: see it for yourself in our screenshots - we think we're one of the best-looking Chinese dictionaries around. Alternate Kai/Song/Xing-style Chinese fonts are also available ($).

• PRC/HK/Taiwan-friendly: every part of Pleco supports both traditional and simplified, headword readings can be shown in Pinyin and Zhuyin, and some dictionaries even support Cantonese. (note: stroke order diagrams do support traditional characters, but use PRC order)

• Audio: Hear Mandarin and Cantonese for words and example sentences using iOS' free built-in text-to-speech system. We also offer add-ons ($) with native-speaker Mandarin recordings and higher-quality Mandarin TTS.

• Document Reader: bring in text from the clipboard and tap on words in it to instantly look them up. Upgrade ($) adds support for tap-lookups in text, HTML, DOC, DOCX, PDF, and EPUB files. We also offer graded readings ($).

• OCR: look up words simply by pointing your device's camera at them, or by tapping on them in a still image. ($)

• Fullscreen handwriting: use your device's whole screen instead of just a little box. Extremely accurate and highly tolerant of stroke order mistakes. (enhanced $)

• Flashcards: create a card from any dictionary entry with a single button tap, import premade word lists, use advanced memorization techniques like SRS, and study in a variety of modes including fill-in-the-blanks handwriting and tone drills. ($)

• Stroke Order Diagrams: animations showing you how to draw each character; 500 characters for free, 28,000 in paid ($) version.

• User dictionaries: create new dictionary entries right on your device as you encounter new words. ($)

• No ads.

We also offer famously excellent customer support and an active user community at http://www.plecoforums.com. And we're constantly working to make our products better; our sales and customer base have been growing for two decades across 4 different platforms. You can be confident that we'll still be fixing bugs and adding features for years to come.

Paid add-ons can be transferred to other devices that link to your iTunes account just like any other paid iTunes content; simply install our free app, open up the "Add-ons" screen, and tap on the "Restore Purchases" button to activate your purchase on each device.

Please contact us at support@pleco.com, via the form at http://www.pleco.com/contact.html, or using the in-app "Contact Support" command with any questions - we'll be delighted to hear from you.

What’s New

Version 3.2.74

Bug fixes.

Ratings and Reviews

4.7 out of 5
227 Ratings

227 Ratings

drraghnall ,

Must have - be kind to yourself and buy the whole pack!

this is an incredible app. I have been studying Mandarin for three years now. When I started, I looked for a good dictionary. Having learnt other languages in the past, I knew a really good dictionary saves hours and hours of study. I took the plunge and paid for the top package of Pleco and have never regretted it. Highly functional, fast, the sound files are great; the example sentences are incredibly useful; the OCR features are awesome and unbelievably useful; the description of the characters is fantastic; being able to import characters in many ways is incredibly useful; and I could go on and on. I can’t tell you highly enough how good this is. When you think I might have spent on language lessons, this is a small amount of money and will save you so much time. Be kind to yourself, and you will not regret it. Pay for the top package. Go on - do it!!

castironferns ,

best money i have ever spent on an app

the free version is very good, especially on ios, but it’s worth upgrading to paid. it’s just so refreshing to see an app that doesn’t run on the subscription model — the one-off price is such a reasonable price for what you get. pleco just works. it’s functional. you can do everything you need to do and nothing you can’t. you pay for it and then you get to keep it and transfer the data to other software. it’s not always intuitive or gamified or animated or whatever but the FAQ is clear comprehensive. you can buy further expansions but they’re not advertised in-app. it’s such an old school approach. we didn’t know how good we had it back in them days thank you pleco i’m crying now hope you’re happy

fat_lizard ,

Download with confidence 👍

When I studied and learnt Mandarin, late 80’s, there were no apps.
Internet? What’s that?
(we had no internet back then. wow!)

If I’d had this app back then, it would be my *go to* reference.

This app will :
✅ save countless hours
✅ make the whole process much faster
✅ vastly improve comprehension
✅ vastly improve understanding
✅ vastly improve character learning and meanings

Even now I use it to look up unfamiliar words or expressions; breakdown the characters and their meanings; PLUS I get to hear them, see the stroke order, see the radical and it’s meaning...all at the touch of a button.

Absolutely brilliant app that’s been researched and developed to perfection 👍👍👍👍👍

To the few who give bad reviews, try looking up a character using a traditional Chinese dictionary, a dictionary with paper pages.
What radical is it?
How many strokes?

This app makes characters a breeze.
All we had was “top to bottom, left to right, closing stroke last”.

Brilliant. I’d give it 10 stars if I could.

This is one of the most professionally designed apps available (I used to be a programmer, so I do know, and, kudos to the coders)
It’s brilliant, and far ahead of anything else.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

In-App Purchases

Basic Bundle
Basic Bundle
Discounted pack of our most popular add-ons.
$49.99
Professional Bundle
Professional Bundle
Larger set of features plus 6 dictionaries.
$99.99

App Privacy

The developer, Pleco Inc., indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer's privacy policy.

Data Not Linked to You

The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:

  • Purchases
  • Identifiers
  • Diagnostics

Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More

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