ABC Chinese-English Comprehensive Dictionary: Alphabetically Based Computerized (ABC Chinese Dictionary Series)

Rating:
Summary: Best pinyin CED on the market. Peerless.
Review: A superbly complete and accurate work, worth every penny! Like the earlier and more portable 71,000-entry ABC Chinese-English Dictionary (another great book, reviewed separately), this is ordered strictly by pinyin, so you needn't know the characters in a word you hear in order to look it up. But it improves greatly on the original ABC in many important ways besides its comprehensive content (over 196,000 entries). Most vital is the addition of the traditional characters next to the simplified for compounds as well (the original had them only for main entries).
A second huge improvement is that the characters making up compounds are now listed singly *even if* they only occur in compounds, e.g., hu2 and die2 (butterfly) are now listed among the other hu2 and die2 main entries, but it clearly marks that they are bound forms occurring only in the compound hu2die2 (so you know not to use them alone). Actually, the dictionary goes into even more detail, distinguishing characters which are bound in one meaning like sheng1 as in xue2sheng1 student, but not in another like 'to give birth'.
Third is the invaluable addition of measure words, in several ways. By an entry such as umbrella (whether you look it up as the character san3 or the compound yu3san3), you'll find "M: 1ba3" (superscripted 1, then 3rd tone ba with diacritical). The measure word is thus ba3, and the 1 means it's the first character listed under the ba3 entries, so you can easily find it if you don't know it. There's also an appendix of measure words (4 pages worth, unlike many of the measly lists in some other books), not only nominal (to count nouns) but also verbal (for actions, like tang4 in pao3le yi2tang4, made one trip). Incredibly helpful!
Fourth, the top quality binding (library-style, cloth) will last a lifetime, and is worth every penny. Fifth, yes, its comprehensive content, over 196,000 entries, meaning it will definitely still be useful to you when your Chinese reaches an advanced, even fluent level, and they've been able to add much more slang and colloquial words, as well as more Taiwan vs. PRC usage.
Finally, (and this is important) the compilers have been phenomenally careful and professional, truly meticulous and accurate, unlike sloppy, error-laden works like UMUM's Learner's CED or Harbaugh's Chinese Characters: A Genealogy and Dictionary. They have also been very responsive to reader input, as is evidenced by the many improvements to this edition. Absolutely one of the best Chinese-English dictionaries in existence, and a definite must-buy!

Rating:
Summary: Best pinyin CED on the market. Peerless.
Review: A superbly complete and accurate work, worth every penny! Like the earlier and more portable 71,000-entry ABC Chinese-English Dictionary (another great book, reviewed separately), this is ordered strictly by pinyin, so you needn't know the characters in a word you hear in order to look it up. But it improves greatly on the original ABC in many important ways besides its comprehensive content (over 196,000 entries). Most vital is the addition of the traditional characters next to the simplified for compounds as well (the original had them only for main entries).
A second huge improvement is that the characters making up compounds are now listed singly *even if* they only occur in compounds, e.g., hu2 and die2 (butterfly) are now listed among the other hu2 and die2 main entries, but it clearly marks that they are bound forms occurring only in the compound hu2die2 (so you know not to use them alone). Actually, the dictionary goes into even more detail, distinguishing characters which are bound in one meaning like sheng1 as in xue2sheng1 student, but not in another like 'to give birth'.
Third is the invaluable addition of measure words, in several ways. By an entry such as umbrella (whether you look it up as the character san3 or the compound yu3san3), you'll find "M: 1ba3" (superscripted 1, then 3rd tone ba with diacritical). The measure word is thus ba3, and the 1 means it's the first character listed under the ba3 entries, so you can easily find it if you don't know it. There's also an appendix of measure words (4 pages worth, unlike many of the measly lists in some other books), not only nominal (to count nouns) but also verbal (for actions, like tang4 in pao3le yi2tang4, made one trip). Incredibly helpful!
Fourth, the top quality binding (library-style, cloth) will last a lifetime, and is worth every penny. Fifth, yes, its comprehensive content, over 196,000 entries, meaning it will definitely still be useful to you when your Chinese reaches an advanced, even fluent level, and they've been able to add much more slang and colloquial words, as well as more Taiwan vs. PRC usage.
Finally, (and this is important) the compilers have been phenomenally careful and professional, truly meticulous and accurate, unlike sloppy, error-laden works like UMUM's Learner's CED or Harbaugh's Chinese Characters: A Genealogy and Dictionary. They have also been very responsive to reader input, as is evidenced by the many improvements to this edition. Absolutely one of the best Chinese-English dictionaries in existence, and a definite must-buy!

Rating:
Summary: I love this Dictionary
Review: I have this dictionary both in the book format and as a software (Wenlin electronic dictionary is based on this one).

I have found this dictionary particularly useful because the words are arranged in alphabetically order using pinyin - when I was going initially through Rosetta Stone's program for learning Chinese.

Dictionary contains over 196,000 entries - well, if you're serious about learning Chinese, you may as well get a comprehensive dictionary to begin with. It will be useful for a long time.

Beside the pinyin listing, you'll find both simplified Chinese characters, and complex characters - complex / traditional characters are in brackets. Parts of speech and abbreviations related to the area where the word may be encountered (e.g. medicine, photography, etc) are also marked beside characters.

I'm so much in love with the Wenlin program, that I have to add a few words about the electronic version of this dictionary. One advantage of Wenlin is that you can hear the words, phrases and entire sentences pronounced. You can also enter text in pinyin, in Chinese characters, or in English. It is very useful when you desire to translate the information you found on the Internet because you can just copy and paste the Chinese text, and while this program is not considered to be a translator - it will help you a great deal in that respect, too.

Other than that it will give you an assortment of lists related to the character or word - according to the frequency, stroke count, radicals and much more. It's totally awesome!




Rating:
Summary: Awesome Dictionary
Review: I have this dictionary both in the book format and as a software (Wenlin electronic dictionary is based on this one).

I have found this dictionary particularly useful because the words are arranged in alphabetically order using pinyin - when I was going initially through Rosetta Stone's program for learning Chinese.

Dictionary contains over 196,000 entries - well, if you're serious about learning Chinese, you may as well get a comprehensive dictionary to begin with. It will be useful for a long time.

Beside the pinyin listing, you'll find both simplified Chinese characters, and complex characters - complex / traditional characters are in brackets. Parts of speech and abbreviations related to the area where the word may be encountered (e.g. medicine, photography, etc) are also marked beside characters.

I'm so much in love with the Wenlin program, that I have to add a few words about the electronic version of this dictionary. One advantage of Wenlin is that you can hear the words, phrases and entire sentences pronounced. You can also enter text in pinyin, in Chinese characters, or in English. It is very useful when you desire to translate the information you found on the Internet because you can just copy and paste the Chinese text, and while this program is not considered to be a translator - it will help you a great deal in that respect, too.

Other than that it will give you an assortment of lists related to the character or word - according to the frequency, stroke count, radicals and much more. It's totally awesome!



Rating:
Summary: lovely
Review: With 196,501 entries in one crisply printed, hardcover, open flat binding, acid free volume for $59, this definitely belongs on any advanced or fluent student's shelf. It has 7,000+ characters (9,638 including 2,491 traditional equivalents of simplified characters) which is more than adequate for most purposes, but I must say that many of the character definitions are not 'comprehensive'. The word definitions are generally good, but on rare occasions a bit too brief or not 100% clear. But the sheer number of words make it well worth the price.

For a foreign student of the language, even a fluent one, the big issue is that Chinese only dictionaries are missing a lot of 'easy' or common words. Some number of more and less common words I've only been able to find here. But it also has uncommon words that don't fit into one volume Chinese only dictionaries. Again, its being one volume is a major convenience issue. I have stumped it on occasion, but maybe the 3rd edition will have them :)

It gives part of speech for every word, though the parts of speech listed for a given term are not necessarily comprehensive. Has traditional characters in brackets not only for main entry characters, but for each and every word, which is mighty nice. The radical index is large print and well laid out. Not sure how serious they are about taking reader comments and suggestions. They do give an email address. They don't get back to you.

The single sort alphabetization takes a little getting used to, and while probably faster is not necessarily always ideal for a character based language. In a standard dictionary, I often like to look at the head character and other words under it when I look up a given word. Having said that, though, single sort is extremely useful when you're not sure of the character(s) in a word since even in a dictionary this big there is often only one word with a given pinyin spelling and never so many as to make you search more than I'd say about 5 extra seconds (except perhaps for a single character entry).

It gives the measure words for all nouns (if they take a particular one), but the measure word appendix at the back is not a learning tool. There are a very small number of entries with example sentences and they are all in pinyin only. The print is a bit small.

It includes sentence patterns as well. I haven't sat down and tried to look up a few hundred of them, but I've come across a bunch of them while using it. They do have a good sprinkling of historical figures (with year of birth and death and a few words about them) which is very welcome, but they are missing some important ones which I hope they will rectify.

Before, when reading Chinese stuff my first recourse was to Wei Dongya's _Chinese English Dictionary_ (which I've reviewed at Amazon), but now I have both that and this out. If you're reading authentic Chinese materials or watching Chinese TV, you ought to add this to your bookshelf.

I have an Amazon Guide for Chinese/English dictionaries of varying combinations.

Rating:
Summary: lovely
Review: With 196,501 entries in one crisply printed, hardcover, open flat binding, acid free volume for $59, this definitely belongs on any advanced or fluent student's shelf. It has 7,000+ characters (9,638 including 2,491 traditional equivalents of simplified characters) which is more than adequate for most purposes, but I must say that many of the character definitions are not 'comprehensive'. The word definitions are generally good, but on rare occasions a bit too brief or not 100% clear. But the sheer number of words make it well worth the price.

Most one volume Chinese only dictionaries (for native Chinese speakers) only have 50,000 words and even the big ones usually just 100,000. The very expensive multi-volume Chinese dictionaries take up the space with quotations ad nauseam from the classics and poetry. That's all well and good, but for a foreign student of the language, even a fluent one, the big issue is that Chinese only dictionaries are missing a lot of 'easy' or common words. Some number of more and less common words I've only been able to find here. I have stumped it on occasion, but maybe the 3rd edition will have them :)

It gives part of speech for every word, though the parts of speech listed for a given term are not necessarily comprehensive. Has traditional characters in brackets not only for main entry characters, but for each and every word, which is mighty nice. The radical index is large print and well laid out. Not sure how serious they are about taking reader comments and suggestions. They do give an email address. They don't get back to you.

The single sort alphabetization takes a little getting used to, and while probably faster is not necessarily always ideal for a character based language. In a standard dictionary, I often like to look at the head character and other words under it when I look up a given word. Having said that, though, single sort is extremely useful when you're not sure of the character(s) in a word since even in a dictionary this big there is often only one word with a given pinyin spelling and never so many as to make you search more than I'd say about 5 extra seconds (except perhaps for a single character entry).

It gives the measure words for all nouns (if they take a particular one), but the measure word appendix at the back is not a learning tool. There are a very small number of entries with example sentences and they are all in pinyin only. The print is a bit small.

It includes sentence patterns as well. I haven't sat down and tried to look up a few hundred of them, but I've come across a bunch of them while using it. They do have a good sprinkling of historical figures (with year of birth and death and a few words about them) which is very welcome, but they are missing some important ones which I hope they will rectify.

Before, when reading Chinese stuff my first recourse was to Wei Dongya's _Chinese English Dictionary_ (which I've reviewed at Amazon), but now I have both that and this out. If you're reading authentic Chinese materials or watching Chinese TV, you ought to add this to your bookshelf.