"
I think it’ll be a really great addition to Pleco. It’s going to help people get into where characters come from, what they mean, how they work — really at a much more linguistically rigorous level than it’s ever been done before.
"
MICHAEL LOVE, founder of Pleco
A new dictionary of Chinese characters based upon cutting-edge research on the Chinese writing system. Learn more efficiently - discover how Chinese characters actually work.
Beginner friendly
Quickly get up and running even as a beginner.
Correct thinking
Correct thinking makes you a much more effective learner.
Long term recall
Our system quickly leads to long-term recall & predictive ability.
How It Works
The first principle of effective memorization is understanding. You must understand what you’re trying to learn. So one of the best ways to increase the efficiency of your character learning is to increase your understanding of how Chinese characters work as a system, rather than as a bunch of disconnected single characters to be individually mastered.
To do that, you need to know what functional components are and how they work.
There are four types of functional components: form components, meaning components, sound components, and empty components.
The authors behind this site know what they’re doing, which is surprisingly rare!
OLLE LINGE, author of Hacking Chinese
See the benefits of learning with the Outlier Dictionary
A very useful digital dictionary and digital tool which I think represents the next stage in the study of Chinese characters, and maybe even the next stage in the digitizing of Sinology itself.
DAVID MOSER, Academic Director at the CET Chinese Studies Program in Beijing, author of "Why Chinese Is So Damn Hard"
you are curious about Chinese character origins and development
you study Sinology, Chinese History, Classical Chinese or Paleography
you are interested in knowing all the details
you want to understand character corruption
you want to understand more about the phonological development of Chinese
you want to better understand the sound variation in Chinese character sound series
you think Chinese characters are aesthetically pleasing
you are interested in Chinese culture you want to take it to the next level
The Essentials Edition
Enough to fuel up your learning.
The Essentials Edition presents the information you need to know to master a character: an explanation of the structure of the character (i.e., what its functional components are and how they function), the pronunciation, the original meaning and basic modern meaning as well as a chart explaining the relationship between the two.
Clears up confusion caused by similar-looking components
Helps you make intelligent guesses about characters you haven’t even learned yet
Helps you remember how to write characters
Opens a whole new world of sound connections between characters
What’s included
The 3500 most common characters (simplified and traditional)
AND
All the information required to master a character
Pronunciation is given according to both the PRC and ROC standards
Character form explanation:
- what are the functional components in the character, and
- how do they function?
Meaning chart with logical relationships between the character’s different meanings
Stroke order diagram (both PRC and ROC standards)
No extraneous information - just the essentials
The Expert Edition
PRO
Meet your new superpowers.
The Expert Edition contains a lot more information about the character’s origin and evolution over time, as well as interesting linguistic tidbits and historical facts. If you’re a language nerd, a scholar of Chinese literature, or someone who finds ancient writing systems fascinating, this is what you’re looking for. Even trained paleographers will find it to be a useful reference, because we cite all of our research within the dictionary itself.
Benefits
You will get all benefits of the Essentials Edition. On top of that, the Expert Edition:
Gives more detailed historical information about the Chinese language and culture
Can be used as a reference for paleographers—we cite all our sources
What’s included
The 3500 most common characters (simplified and traditional)
AND
Everything in the Essentials Edition
AND
Character form evolution
Historical tidbits
Phonological information
Other interesting things about the character
This project is no joke. They’re out to build something I’ve wished has existed for quite a while, and they’ve got the skills and dedication to make it happen.
MICHAEL LOVE, founder of Pleco
