SmartHanzi is a free yet professional tool for students and anyone wishing to read real Chinese texts (web, PDF), even with a limited level in Chinese.

It includes standard dictionaries for English, French and German, as well as specialized dictionaries: DDB (Digital Dictionary of Buddhism, short definitions) and CJKV-E (CJKV-English Dictionary of Confucian, Daoist and Intellectual Historical Terms, short definitions).

SmartHanzi is available for desktop (PC, Mac) and mobile (iOS, Android).

PARSE AND LOOKUP

Copy a full text and get all words with one click.

Details (lookup) can show multiple dictionaries simultaneously as selected by user, and links to related words and characters.

Besides recognizing the correspondence between simplified and traditional variants, SmartHanzi also recognizes multiple traditional variants. For instance, searching/parsing 真 will show both 真 and 眞, according to what is present in selected dictionaries. Or it will recognize equally well 為/爲 or 眾/衆.

ETYMOLOGY

SmartHanzi shows etymology of Chinese characters from the Etymological Dictionary of Han/Chinese Characters by Lawrence J. Howell and Hikaru Morimoto,.

Etymology is not only for scholars or experts. Getting familiar with basic components and their explanation brings effective milestones for students at all levels, both for remembering characters and when meeting new ones.

Make friends with characters!

HSK

Word tests for HSK levels 1 to 6. Progress is shown over the last 12 months.

The basic option is with short tests, mistaken results retried first. Users can prefer longer tests, review unsure words or check known words. Tests are also available with traditional characters.