Pleco

The description of Pleco

Site Editorial Commentary：Chinese dictionary with handwriting, OCR, flashcards, audio, Cantonese, and more

Pleco is your all-in-one Chinese learning solution, featuring a comprehensive Chinese-English dictionary, document reader, and flashcard system. Benefit from its full-screen handwriting input and live camera-based character lookups, all developed by a company with 17 years of experience in creating mobile Chinese learning software.

Key Features: ($ = paid add-on)

• Robust Dictionaries: The free app includes CC-CEDICT and our proprietary PLC dictionary, covering 130,000 Chinese words with 20,000 example sentences including Pinyin. Enhance your vocabulary with 8 additional free dictionaries available for download, including a 22,000-entry Cantonese-English dictionary. 19 other premium dictionaries are available as paid upgrades. ($)

• Handwriting Input: Easily look up unknown characters by drawing them, thanks to our top-tier recognition engine. (Basic version free, enhanced version $)

• Live Optical Character Recognition (OCR): Instantly translate Chinese words by pointing your device's camera at them or by scrolling through a static image. ($)

• Screen Reader/OCR: Quickly tap-to-lookup Chinese words in other apps using a floating interface, compatible with Android 4.1 and later. (Reader free, OCR $)

• Flashcard System: Create flashcards from any dictionary entry with a single tap, import pre-made word lists, and utilize advanced SRS (spaced repetition) techniques. Study using various modes, including fill-in-the-blanks and tone drills. (Simple version free, full-featured $)

• Audio pronunciation: Hear native-speaker audio pronunciations for over 34,000 Chinese dictionary headwords. (Stitched-syllable free, multi-syllable $). Listen to example sentences with text-to-speech (system TTS free, enhanced $).

• Powerful Search: Find words using Chinese characters, Pinyin (spaces/tones optional), or a combination, with wildcard and full-text search support.

• Cross-Referencing: Tap any Chinese character or word within a dictionary entry to view its definition.

• Stroke Order Diagrams: Learn how to write each Chinese character with animations. Includes 500 in the free app, and 28,000 in the paid add-on.

• Voice Recognition: Look up words by speaking into your device's microphone.

• Document Reader: Open Chinese text or PDF files and look up unfamiliar words by tapping them. ($) Look up characters on web pages via the "Share" option, or in other documents using the clipboard. (Free)

• PRC- and Taiwan-Friendly: Supports both traditional and simplified characters across dictionary definitions, stroke order, search, OCR, and handwriting. Supports Zhuyin (with ruby support) and Pinyin for pronunciation display.

• Cantonese Support: Display headwords and perform searches in Jyutping/Yale romanization. Cantonese dictionary and audio add-ons are also available. (Some $)

• No ads: Enjoy an ad-free experience without constant upgrade reminders.

We pride ourselves on excellent customer support – just send us an email! Join our active user community at plecoforums.com.

With 17 years of experience since 2000, our sales and customer base have continuously grown across four platforms. We value our long-time users; those who purchased a dictionary on a Palm Pilot in 2001 can still use it on a new Android phone in 2020 without upgrade fees.

Paid add-ons can be transferred to new devices like any other paid app. Simply open the free app on your new device to reactivate them.

If you own Pleco on another OS, visit pleco.com/android for migration options.

This app uses Accessibility services (for our Screen Reader feature, assisting users in Chinese-speaking regions without prior knowledge of Chinese).

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