Table of Contents

🚀 Getting Started

Welcome to the Hanping Chinese Dictionary! This guide covers the features and functionality that are available in the app.

Download & Installation

Hanping Chinese Dictionary is now FREE for everyone! Download it from:

💡 Note: The app is now free, but some features like AnkiDroid export and Import/Export user vocab are available as in-app purchases. Users who previously purchased the app are automatically granted these features.
Add-ons Features

Permissions

All permissions are optional for core functionality, but some features won't work without them:

  • Read and write to AnkiDroid database - for exporting words as flashcards
  • Google Play license check - to verify previous purchases
  • Google Play billing service - for in-app purchases
  • Run foreground service - for voice playback from 3rd party apps
  • Show notifications - required when running foreground services
  • Network access - for analytics (can be opted out in Settings)

🔍 Search & Lookup

The main search interface is the heart of the Hanping Chinese Dictionary.

Search Screen

Input Methods

Chinese Handwriting Recognition

Tap the paintbrush icon in the search box to use built-in handwriting recognition. This is much more convenient than using a 3rd party IME because it waits for you after each stroke!

Radical Lookup

Tap the 部 icon in the search box to find characters by radical. Radicals are grouped by stroke-count and sorted by frequency within each group.

Voice Recognition

Tap the microphone icon in the search box for voice input. Long-press on this icon to show the configuration dialog where you can choose:

  • Chinese (Mandarin)
  • English
  • System Default

Pinyin Input

When searching using pinyin, there is no need to enter spaces between syllables. However, sometimes it's useful to do so. For example, searching for xi an will not include any of the xian results.

Search Features

Wildcard Search

Hanping supports these wildcard characters:

  • * - Multiple syllables (Hanzi & Pinyin). For example, 中*国 & zhong*guo
  • @ - Single syllable (Hanzi & Pinyin). For example, 中@国 & zhong@guo
  • # - Tone number (Pinyin only). For example, xi#an will match xi1an1 & xi1an4

Long Chinese Phrases

Try searching for long Chinese phrases. If you enter a long phrase (which is not in the dictionary), Hanping will break down the phrase into words. This works really well when combined with voice recognition in Chinese mode!

Sentence Translation (Mandarin app only)

Hanping now includes auto-generated sentence translations using on-device Google Translate:

  • English to Chinese: When you type an English sentence (at least 4 words) into the search box, instead of showing "no English matches", you'll see an auto-generated Chinese translation (using on-device Google Translate) along with pinyin and sentence decomposition.
  • Chinese to English: When you type a Chinese sentence (at least 4 characters) into the search box, instead of showing "unknown meaning", you'll see an auto-generated English translation (using on-device Google Translate) along with sentence decomposition.

Note: Hanping also translates the generated Chinese text back to English to help confirm translation accuracy.

When viewing a sentence in the details screen, tap the "auto-generated" translation to open it in the Notes dialog. The translation will then appear like any other note for future reference.

⚠️ Important: On-device translation engines have inherent limitations, so these translations are optimized for quick comprehension rather than professional-level accuracy. For higher accuracy, use the external online translators (DeepL, Google, Microsoft). These can be accessed via the Translate icon, and you can set your preferred translator in the Chinese Settings. These translations are most reliable when the input is grammatically correct. Entering random Chinese characters may produce grammatically correct English output, but that doesn't mean the original Chinese is a valid translation of that English. Auto-generated translations are not available in the Cantonese app due to limited on-device translation support for Cantonese.

Character Lookup Within Words

You can lookup Chinese words within dictionary definitions and lookup characters within headwords.

Word Details

📖 Word Details

The Word Details screen shows comprehensive information about each dictionary entry.

Word Details

Character Display Options

In the Nav Drawer: Settings / Chinese Settings tap the first item and select either:

  • Simplified
  • Simp [Trad]
  • Traditional
  • Trad [Simp]

Pinyin & Zhuyin

In the same Settings / Chinese Settings, pick how phonetics are written:

  • Pinyin with tone marks — lājī
  • Pinyin with tone numbers — la1 ji1
  • Zhuyin (bopomofo) — ㄌㄚ ㄐㄧ

Choose zhuyin and the headword is typeset the way Taiwanese textbooks set it: a vertical column of bopomofo down the right-hand side of each character, rather than one line of phonetics underneath the whole word. Each character keeps its own phonetic beside it, so a long word stays readable instead of leaving you to match syllables to characters by counting. The same treatment carries into the character grids — radical cards, composites and phonetic groups. In running text, like a summary row's one-line phonetic, zhuyin stays inline.

Hanzi Coloring

The coloring represents the tone of each character. There are different coloring-schemes available. To cycle through them: Menu (within app) > Settings > Colouring by Tones

External Links

External links (only when you are online) allow you to quickly & conveniently look up a word in supported 3rd party websites such as:

  • YellowBridge (for detailed word information)
  • Naver (for sample sentences)
  • Skritter (for stroke animations & writing practice)
  • And many more

🗣️ Taiwan Mandarin

Plenty of common words are read differently in Taiwan: 垃圾 is lèsè rather than lājī, 星期 is xīngqí, 危險 is wéixiǎn. Hanping knows about 5,800 of these, and shows them alongside the standard phonetic.

💡 Note: Everything in this section is Hanping Chinese Dictionary (Mandarin) only — it doesn't apply to the Cantonese app.

Turning It On

There's no setting of its own. Taiwan Mandarin appears automatically whenever you're reading traditional hanzi — set that in Settings / Chinese Settings. Choosing zhuyin doesn't switch it on by itself: zhuyin is a way of writing the phonetic, not a choice of which Mandarin to read.

The two do go together well, though. Turn zhuyin on under Word Details and every phonetic here is written in bopomofo, the TW: line included.

On Screen

The phonetic under a headword is always standard Mandarin. Where Taiwan differs, a TW: line appears directly beneath it, with only the syllables that actually moved shown in bold. Tap that line and you get that phonetic as a word in its own right, so you can star it, add a note or play it like any other headword. Example sentences work the same way.

垃圾 showing its Taiwan Mandarin phonetic lè sè below the standard pinyin

Summary cards have no room for a second line, so a word's card carries the phonetic as a prefix instead. Exporting that card gives you the same text. Cards carry the prefix only where Taiwan Mandarin differs by more than a neutral tone, so the most common vocabulary of all doesn't end up prefixed on every card; the word page still shows those. Sentence cards never carry it.

Search results for 星期 with [TW: xīng qí] prefixed to each summary card

Audio

  • Human voice - reads the Taiwan pronunciation, showing Playing Taiwan Mandarin underneath so you always know when what you're hearing departs from what's written on screen
  • System voice - asks your device for a Taiwan Mandarin voice, where it has one
  • Example sentences - included, so a word doesn't get Taiwan Mandarin on the word page and mainland Mandarin inside a sentence
Playing Taiwan Mandarin message shown while 星期 is played

TOCFL Vocabulary

TOCFL (Test of Chinese as a Foreign Language) is Taiwan's official proficiency exam, administered by SC-TOP. Hanping includes the complete 華語八千詞 (8,000 Chinese Words) list — around 7,500 words covering bands Novice 1 and 2 and Levels 1 to 5.

TOCFL Exam level picker showing bands N1, N2 and Levels 1 to 5

You get two lists, exactly as HSK does:

  • TOCFL Exam - the words themselves
  • TOCFL Characters - the individual characters, including those that only appear inside longer TOCFL words
Browsing the TOCFL Exam Level 5 word list

Set TOCFL as your preferred exam in Settings / Chinese Settings and every word page will show its TOCFL level, the same way it shows an HSK level.

🧩 Hanzi Decomposition

Understand Chinese characters by breaking them down into their components and understanding their structure.

Hanzi Decomposition

Character Breakdown

Hanping shows the breakdown of the top 10,000 characters, including:

  • Radical identification - Which component is the radical
  • Phonetic components - Which component indicates pronunciation (where applicable)
  • Character structure - How the character is built from its parts

Phonetic Groups

See which characters have the current character as a phonetic component. This helps you understand pronunciation patterns and character relationships.

Composites View

View all characters that contain a specific component by long-tapping on any component in the decomposition view. You can also long-tap on a composite to see the composites of that composite.

Character Composites

Hanzi Info Dialog

Access a comprehensive summary of decomposition and composites in the Hanzi Info dialog, providing detailed character analysis.

Hanzi Info Dialog

Sentence Decomposition

When you paste or type long Chinese phrases into the search box, Hanping automatically:

  • Breaks down the phrase into individual words
  • Shows the Pinyin/Zhuyin for each word
  • Displays Simplified/Traditional variants (if enabled in settings)
  • Shows surrounding text in context (in faint grey)
Sentence Decomposition

✍️ Stroke Animations

Learn how to write Chinese characters with animated stroke order demonstrations.

Free Stroke Animations

Hanping includes 1,000+ free stroke animations for the most common characters. These animations show:

  • Correct stroke order - Learn the proper sequence for writing each character
  • Stroke direction - See which direction each stroke should be drawn
  • Character structure - Understand how characters are built from individual strokes

Extended Stroke Animations

For comprehensive coverage, you can purchase access to 8,000+ additional stroke animations via in-app purchase. This includes animations for virtually all characters you'll encounter in your studies.

🎵 Soundboard

Practice pronunciation with the built-in soundboard feature.

Individual Syllable Practice

Play individual syllables to practice specific sounds and tones. This is perfect for:

  • Tone practice - Focus on getting the correct tone for each syllable
  • Pronunciation training - Listen to native speaker audio for each sound
  • Character recognition - Associate sounds with characters
Soundboard

Tone Pair Practice

Practice specific tone combinations to master the flow of Mandarin Chinese.

Soundboard

Native Speaker Audio

All audio is recorded by native speakers, ensuring you learn correct pronunciation from the start. The soundboard includes audio for all single syllables plus over 4,000 multi-syllable words via in-app purchases.

📝 Example Sentences

Learn words in context with example sentences from Hanping and supported dictionary add-ons.

Comprehensive Examples

Each example sentence includes:

  • Chinese characters - See the word used in context
  • Pinyin pronunciation - Know how to say the sentence
  • English translation - Understand the meaning
  • Sentence audio - Play AI voice recordings when matching voice add-ons are installed

Contextual Learning

Example sentences help you understand:

  • Word usage - How words are used in real situations
  • Grammar patterns - Common sentence structures
  • Cultural context - Natural ways to express ideas in Chinese

Accessing Example Sentences

Example sentences appear in word details when they are available from Hanping or installed dictionary add-ons such as ABC Chinese-English, ABC English-Chinese, CantoDict, and Words.hk. You can also use external links in the word details screen to access third-party websites that specialize in contextual examples.

🔊 AI Voice Recordings

AI voice add-ons provide audio recordings for example sentences, making it easier to hear full sentences in context rather than only individual words or syllables.

AI Voice Add-ons dialog

Available Voice Packs

  • Mandarin - Eight AI voice add-ons covering Hanping and ABC example sentences, with Mainland Mandarin and Taiwan Mandarin voices
  • Cantonese - Two AI voice add-ons, each covering both CantoDict and Words.hk example sentences, with Hong Kong Cantonese voices

Playing Sentence Audio

Tap the speaker icon next to an example sentence to play your primary purchased AI voice. If no matching AI voice is installed, Hanping uses the system voice where available.

Long-tap the speaker icon to open the voice picker and choose a different installed voice for that sentence.

AI Voice picker

Buying and Installing

AI voice recordings are available from the Add-ons screen in the app. After purchasing, sign in to your Hanping account in the app to keep add-ons in sync across supported devices.

📚 ABC Dictionaries

Enhance your dictionary experience with professional ABC Chinese-English and ABC English-Chinese dictionaries available as in-app purchases.

Intelligent Integration

Both ABC dictionaries are intelligently integrated into Hanping Chinese Dictionary:

  • Automatic merging - When you search for a Chinese word, Hanping searches both ABC Chinese-English and CC-CEDICT dictionaries, then merges the results (filtering out duplicates)
  • No manual switching - No need to cycle through dictionaries, Hanping does all the work for you
  • Enhanced sentence decomposition - When pasting longer Chinese text, Hanping breaks it down using all your Chinese dictionaries, not just one

If you don't have the ABC dictionaries

Hanping still searches them. If you look up a word that isn't in CC-CEDICT but does exist in ABC, you'll see the headword and its pinyin, with a note that the definition is in the ABC dictionary.

That's deliberate. The easy thing would be to return "no results found" for anything outside the dictionaries you have installed, which is what most apps do. We'd rather tell you the word is real and how it's pronounced — that's often all you needed, and it's a good deal more useful than a dead end.

So a lookup never comes back empty just because you haven't bought anything. If you do want the definition, it's one of over 200,000 in the ABC add-on.

ABC Chinese-English Dictionary

This dictionary has about twice as many Chinese headwords as the built-in CC-CEDICT dictionary. It's particularly useful if you want to know how to use Chinese words, rather than just get an idea of their meaning.

Features:

  • Over 200,000 Chinese headwords including Simplified & Traditional characters as well as Pinyin/Zhuyin pronunciation
  • Over 10,000 example sentences including Simplified & Traditional forms and Pinyin/Zhuyin pronunciation
  • Grammatical information such as Part of Speech and Measure Words
  • Search capabilities - Can be searched by Chinese characters (Simplified & Traditional) or Pinyin but not by English
ABC Chinese-English Dictionary Example

ABC English-Chinese Dictionary

This dictionary makes a huge difference if you often search for English words. The built-in CC-CEDICT dictionary has an auto-generated English index, so many less-common English terms are missing. ABC English-Chinese Dictionary changes all that because its primary index is English!

Features:

  • Over 62,000 English headwords
  • Over 7,000 example sentences including Simplified & Traditional forms and Pinyin/Zhuyin pronunciation
  • Grammatical information such as Part of Speech
  • Search capabilities - Can be searched by English but not by Chinese characters or Pinyin
ABC English-Chinese Dictionary Example

How to Purchase ABC Dictionaries

From within the Hanping Chinese Dictionary app, paying through Google Play or the App Store:

  1. From the main screen, tap the top-left hamburger icon (or swipe in from the left edge) to reveal the navigation menu
  2. Tap Add-ons
  3. You will see the ABC Chinese-English and ABC English-Chinese add-ons along with tabs for other types of add-ons like audio and stroke animations

Or on this website, paying by card: sign in on the Purchase Portal and buy the dictionaries there. Either route grants the add-on to the same Hanping account, so it appears in the app once you're signed in.

For prices and more detail, see the ABC Dictionaries page. For all the abbreviations used within the ABC dictionaries, read our ABC Dictionary Abbreviations guide.

📚 Vocabulary Management

Organize and manage your vocabulary with starred words, tags, and history.

Build word lists from history or other word lists

Starred Words

Star any word (or even a phrase not in the dictionary) for easy recall later on. Your starrings and custom tags appear as labels above every headword and next to every word in all search results.

Tags

Organize words by categories using custom tags. You can also import predefined lists like Top Idioms as custom tags:

  1. Tap on the Tags tab so that you can see all Predefined Lists
  2. Long-tap on Top Idioms and tap on IMPORT TAGS
  3. Create a new Custom Tag category and tap OK

History

View recently searched words. History now displays sentences in an improved format with hanzi and phonetic on separate lines. Sentences are marked with a vertical line in the left margin.

To clear or edit history, long-tap on any history item (or any date label) to bring up an Action Menu with options to Select All or Delete.

History

Clipboard Support

Copy any Chinese headword to Clipboard to use outside of the app (e.g. in email/sms app).

🎴 AnkiDroid Integration (Android-only)

Export your vocabulary to AnkiDroid for spaced repetition learning.

AnkiDroid Integration

Exporting to AnkiDroid

Export your starred words and vocabulary to AnkiDroid as flashcards. This feature requires the AnkiDroid export in-app purchase (automatically granted to previous purchasers).

Tag Filtering in AnkiDroid

Filter by Tag in the Browser

  1. Open AnkiDroid
  2. Tap the ≡ menu icon (top-left)
  3. Tap "Browse"
  4. Tap the filter icon (🔍) at the top
  5. Tap the tag icon next to the search bar
  6. Select one or more tags from the list
  7. Tap Apply to see matching cards

Create a Filtered Deck Using Tags

  1. From the main screen, tap "Custom Study" at the bottom
  2. Select "Study by card state or tag"
  3. Choose "Cards with a specific tag"
  4. Select the tag(s) you want to review
  5. Set the number of cards and tap "Build"

Auto-play Voice

To auto-play voice when a card is shown in AnkiDroid, edit the template by adding document.querySelector('.play_button').click(); just before the </script> tag.

☁️ Cloud Backup

Cloud Backup keeps a copy of your starred words, custom tags, notes and search history online with your Hanping account, so your vocabulary survives a lost, broken or replaced device. It's free, and it's the recommended way to keep an off-device copy of your data.

Backing Up

  1. Go to Settings (left Navigation drawer) and open the Backup/Restore screen
  2. Sign in to your Hanping account from the Cloud section (or anywhere else in the app)
  3. In the Cloud section, tap Back up to Cloud

Backing up is something you do, not something that happens behind your back: nothing is uploaded until you tap the button. The Cloud section shows when your data was last backed up, and the app reminds you if your latest changes haven't been backed up for a while.

Backup/Restore screen showing the Current Data, Local Backup and Cloud sections

Restoring on a New Device

Install the app, sign in to the same Hanping account, then tap Restore from Cloud on the Backup/Restore screen (Settings). If your account holds backups from more than one device, you'll see each backup's device name, date and word/tag counts so you can pick the right one. Restoring replaces the data currently on the device, so the app always shows you what you'd be replacing first, and restarts afterwards.

Select device backup dialog listing an iPhone and a Pixel 7a backup with dates and counts

If you've lost data and aren't sure which backup to use, contact us — ideally before restoring anything.

Good to Know

  • Encrypted - your backup is encrypted before it's stored, using a key private to your account
  • One slot per device - each device keeps its own backup, so backing up one device never overwrites another's. An account can hold backups from up to 3 devices per app; if you reach that limit, remove an old device's backup to make room
  • Each app is separate - Hanping Chinese Dictionary and Hanping Cantonese Dictionary have their own vocabulary, so each backs up and restores independently

💾 Backup Files

Independently of Cloud Backup, Hanping automatically saves backup files to a folder on your device.

Choosing a Backup Location

  1. Go to Settings (left Navigation drawer) and open the Backup/Restore screen
  2. Specify the Location for new backups
  3. Don't specify a folder under /Android/data as it may be deleted when you uninstall apps
  4. If local device storage doesn't appear, tap the three-dots icon and tap Show internal storage

You can restore from any backup file on the same screen, and share a backup file elsewhere (for example, by emailing it to yourself) using the share icon next to the latest backup.

💡 Note: Because these files live on the device itself, they won't help if the device is lost or wiped — so keep an off-device copy too. Cloud Backup is the easy way to do that.

📱 Companion Apps

Hanping offers additional specialized apps that work together to enhance your Chinese learning experience.

Hanping Chinese Camera (Android-only)

Save time doing dictionary lookups with Chinese OCR! Simply point your camera at Chinese text to get all the English definitions. No need to even touch the screen!

Key Features:

  • Instant OCR - Point and shoot to instantly recognize Chinese text
  • Works on any image - Including screenshots and photos
  • No manual input - No need to type or draw characters
  • Compatible integration - Works seamlessly with the main dictionary app

Download:

Hanping Chinese Popup (Android-only)

The ultimate solution for quickly looking up Chinese words on your smartphone or tablet, no matter what app you are using.

Key Features:

  • Universal access - Works from any app or system screen
  • Screen capture + OCR - World's first app to combine in-app screen capture with OCR
  • Instant lookups - Quick access to definitions without switching apps
  • Seamless integration - Works with the main dictionary app

Download:

Hanping Cantonese Dictionary

Learning Cantonese instead? This app combines the best-in-class Cantodict dictionary with Hanping's technology.

Key Features:

  • Traditional & Simplified Characters - Suitable for both Hong Kong and Guangdong
  • Multiple Phonetic Options - Jyutping (numbered & superscript), Yale (tone-marked and numbered)
  • Native Speaker Audio - For all single-syllable sounds
  • Cantodict Dictionary - Comprehensive entries differentiating spoken vs written language

Download:

🔧 Troubleshooting & FAQ

Find solutions to common issues and frequently asked questions.

Common Issues

Chinese characters show as empty squares

Some devices ship with a system font that doesn't cover the full range of Chinese characters, so rarer ones render as blank boxes. You can point Hanping at any TTF or OTF font of your own instead, on both Android and iOS — see how to use a custom Chinese font. There's nothing to buy; it's part of the app.

License Not Found (Android-only)

If you see a "License Not Found" error:

  1. Make sure you're running the latest version of the app
  2. Check you're logged into the same Google account used to purchase the app
  3. In Play Store app, tap profile icon > Payments and subscriptions > Budget and history
  4. Verify the Hanping app is included in your purchase history

AnkiDroid Export Issues (Android-only)

If you're unable to export to AnkiDroid on Android 13+ devices (especially Samsung and Xiaomi), this appears to be an AnkiDroid bug. Check this solution.

Google Play Store Issues (Android-only)

For common Play Store errors:

  • Error 403: Clear data on the Play Store app
  • Error -101: Remove and re-add your Gmail account

Getting Help

If you can't find what you're looking for, please contact us or check our FAQ page for more detailed troubleshooting information.