Pleco Chinese Dictionary

Pleco Chinese Dictionary is a free Android application in the Reading & Writing category. It combines a Chinese-English dictionary, document reader, flashcard system, handwriting input, and camera-based character lookup in one learning tool. It is intended for people who study, read, or write Chinese and need to identify unfamiliar words while using an Android device. The software comes from a company with 17 years of experience making mobile Chinese learning software.

The free app includes the CC-CEDICT and PLC dictionaries, covering 130,000 Chinese words and 20,000 example sentences with Pinyin. Users can also download eight additional free dictionaries, including a 22,000-entry Cantonese-English dictionary, while 19 further dictionaries are available as paid upgrades. Search accepts Chinese characters, Pinyin with optional spaces or tones, combinations of these forms, wildcards, and full-text queries. Unknown characters can be looked up by drawing them with the basic handwriting recognizer, while an enhanced recognition option is available as a paid add-on.

Pleco can recognize Chinese words through its live camera OCR, which allows users to point a device at text or move around a still image, although this OCR feature is paid. Its screen reader provides a floating interface for tapping Chinese words in other Android applications, with the reader available free and OCR available as a paid option; the feature works on Android 4.1 and later. Dictionary entries can be turned into flashcards with one tap, and users can import prepared word lists or study with modes such as fill-in-the-blanks, tone drills, and spaced repetition. The basic flashcard system is free, while the full-featured version is a paid upgrade.

Audio tools provide male and female native-speaker recordings for more than 34,000 Chinese dictionary headwords, with stitched-syllable playback free and multi-syllable playback paid. Example sentences can also be read through system text-to-speech for free, with enhanced text-to-speech available as a paid option. In the MirrorNest catalog, the product is represented by a direct link to its official release rather than by a mirrored copy. This distribution approach keeps the catalog entry focused on locating the Android release, while the listed free license and optional paid add-ons describe how the application is offered.

Free to use — a paid version with additional features is also available.