Chinese Dictionary

Even for native Chinese speakers, there are cases when the use of an Chinese dictionary would still be necessary. That is because there are several millions of words that such a dictionary could contain and each word could mean several different things; thus, nobody is expected to know about every single word of the dictionary.

Definition

An Chinese dictionary is defined as a reference book which contains an alphabetical listing of chinese words with their corresponding meaning(s), correct spelling(s), possible variants, definition(s), etymology, possible synonyms and/or antonyms, and sometimes examples of how the word is correctly used. The dictionary will often have definitions that are in chinese.

Comparison with Other Dictionaries

The Chinese dictionary defines chinese terms using chinese words. Still, when someone wants to learn what an chinese word is in terms of another language (or the other way around) then a different dictionary is to be used - depending on which direction the word will be translated to. For instance, an chinese word could be translated to english using an chinese-english dictionary. In such specific dictionary, the chinese word will not be translated to any other form, just to French or vice versa.

Although the chinese dictionary is one of the most widely used all over the world, newer dictionaries have gained a significant niche, too. One of these is the European dictionary which uses the mother tongues used in many of the countries in Europe - notably bi-directional dictionaries to and from chinese such as chinese-Croatian, chinese-German, chinese-French, Croatian-Slovenian, chinese-Norwegian, Italian-Croatian, chinese-Italian, and many more combinations.

As Tools

There is no question that the use of dictionaries as tools for translation or finding word definition or checking for the correct spelling or even learning correct grammar is invaluable. How many tourists have you seen walking around a foreign place and bringing a dictionary or phrase-book in hand? Plenty! Why is that so? Well, people travel for work or leisure; however, people from different countries speak differently but, often, English is a language known to both parties. It is, however, quite exciting to learn a new language. Still, to avoid confusion due to incorrect word use, a dictionary could be used.

All in all, the chinese dictionary along with its translation counterparts is an invaluable tool that could be considered as one of human kind's greatest achievement in terms of crossing the barrier created by different mother tongues of different people from different places and countries.