About Pleco Chinese Dictionary
Pleco is the ultimate Chinese learning companion - an integrated Chinese English dictionary / document reader / flashcard system with fullscreen handwriting input and live camera-based character lookups, from a company...
Pleco is the ultimate Chinese learning companion - an integrated Chinese English dictionary / document reader / flashcard system with fullscreen handwriting input and live camera-based character lookups, from a company with 17 years' experience making mobile Chinese learning software.
Major features: ($ = paid add-on)
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Great dictionaries: the free app comes with two dictionaries - CC-CEDICT and our in-house PLC dictionary - which together cover 130,000 Chinese words and include 20,000 example sentences with Pinyin. We offer 8 more free dictionaries as optional downloads, including a 22,000-entry Cantonese-English dictionary, and 19 other great dictionaries are available as paid upgrades. ($)
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Handwriting input: lookup unknown characters by drawing them, with a best-in-class recognition engine. (basic version free, enhanced version $)
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Live Optical Character Recognizer (OCR): look up Chinese words in the dictionary simply by pointing your device's camera at them, or by scrolling around a still image. ($)
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Screen Reader/OCR: instantly tap-lookup Chinese words in other apps through a floating interface; works on Android 4.1 and later. (reader free, OCR $)
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Flashcard System: create a card from any dictionary entry with a single button tap, import premade word lists, use advanced techniques like SRS (spaced repetition), and study in a variety of modes including fill-in-the-blanks and tone drills. (simple version free, full-featured $)
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Audio Pronunciation: instantly hear male + female native-speaker audio for Chinese dictionary headwords; recordings available for over 34,000 words. (stitched-syllable free, multi-syllable $) Or listen to example sentences with text-to-speech (system TTS free, enhanced $).
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Powerful search: look up words by Chinese characters, Pinyin (spaces/tones optional), or a combination, with support for wildcards and full-text search.
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Cross-referencing: tap on any Chinese character / word in any dictionary entry to bring up its definition.
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Stroke Order Diagrams: animations showing you how to draw each Chinese character; 500 in free app, 28,000 in paid add-on.
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Voice Recognition: look up words by speaking them into your device's microphone.
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Document Reader: open a Chinese-language text or PDF file and look up unknown words in the dictionary simply by tapping on them. ($) You can also look up characters on web pages through "Share" and in other documents through the clipboard. (free)
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PRC- and Taiwan-friendly: supports traditional and simplified characters (in dictionary definitions, stroke order, search, OCR, and handwriting), and supports Zhuyin (with ruby support) as well as Pinyin for pronunciation display.
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Cantonese: display headwords + perform searches in Jyutping/Yale romanization. We also offer Cantonese dictionary and Cantonese audio add-ons. (some $)
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No ads: we won't even nag you about buying add-ons.
We also offer excellent customer support - send us an email and see for yourself - and an active user community at plecoforums.com.
We've been making Chinese dictionary apps since 2000, and our sales and customer base have been steadily growing for 17 years across four different platforms. We take good care of our longtime users: people who bought a dictionary on a Palm Pilot in 2001 can still use that dictionary on a new Android phone in 2020 without even paying an upgrade fee.
Paid add-ons can be moved to a new device like any other paid app; just open our free app on your new device and they should reactivate.
If you already own Pleco on another OS, see pleco.com/android for migration options.
This app uses Accessibility services. (for our Screen Reader feature, which helps users to get by in Chinese-speaking regions without knowing Chinese)
Twitter/Facebook: plecosoft
Previous Versions
Here you can find the changelog of Pleco Chinese Dictionary since it was posted on our website on 2013-08-22 15:43:10.
The latest version is and it was updated on 2026-10-16 03:19:32. See below the changes in each version.
Pleco Chinese Dictionary version
Updated At: 2026-05-21
Changes: • Added updated flashcards for the 2026 HSK 3.0 to Import/Export / Install Premade Cards; these also include about 100 custom definitions to help ensure that the important HSK-relevant senses are surfaced for every word.
• Overhauled our 'experimental OCR' algorithm (Settings/OCR), making it much faster, better at detecting single-character rects, supporting it in live as well as still OCR, and adding an option to bring back the old green overlay interface when it's turned on.
• Bug fixes.
Pleco Chinese Dictionary version
Updated At: 2026-05-21
Changes: This update is mostly about fixes for annoying / hard-to-fix bugs, heavily centered around screen reader / OCR - which should work better in fullscreen mode, for example - but touching on lots of other areas too. If there's any long-running bug in our Android app you're aware of that hasn't been fixed in this update (whether or not you've written about it before) please let us know.
Pleco Chinese Dictionary version
Updated At: 2025-10-14
Changes: - Greatly sped up our 'experimental still algorithm' (Settings / OCR) and made it crash less, so we strongly recommend everybody try it out to see if it offers a better combination of speed and accuracy for your needs
- Various Google-mandated version compatibility updates
Pleco Chinese Dictionary version
Updated At: 2025-10-13
Changes: - Adopted new HWR + OCR libraries by default, including for live OCR, though you can revert to the old ones in settings
- Adopted better/streamlined "new OCR" interface by default for live OCR, though with the new algorithm it's a bit different (we show text above the box rather than as an overlay because ML text rects are less accurate)
- Added 'snap OCR' for quick captures of text to tap-lookup
- Switched to open-source PDF library and cleaned up some PDF reading annoyances
- Many bug fixes
Pleco Chinese Dictionary version
Updated At: 2025-06-08
Changes: .96+.97: bug fixes
.95:
- Updated to new, neural-network paid TTS
- On Android 14 and later, made Screen OCR use Accessibility rather than Media Projection
- Fixed speech recognizer doing English instead of Chinese
- Fixed a bug that flipped paused New OCR images upside-down
- Fixed Screen OCR bar position bugs
- Fixed foldable screen bugs
- Fixed a bug that could cause ebooks to lose place when rotating screen
- Made "Pleco" system selection menu command use reader if length >
Pleco Chinese Dictionary version
Updated At: 2024-10-13
Changes: .96: fix bug with Yale romanization
.95:
- Updated to new, neural-network paid TTS
- On Android 14 and later, made Screen OCR use Accessibility rather than Media Projection
- Fixed speech recognizer doing English instead of Chinese
- Fixed a bug that flipped paused New OCR images upside-down
- Fixed Screen OCR bar position bugs
- Fixed foldable screen bugs
- Fixed a bug that could cause ebooks to lose place when rotating screen
- Made "Pleco" system selection menu command use reader if length >
Pleco Chinese Dictionary version 3.2.94
Updated At: 2024-04-02
Changes: Experimental fix for some issues users have been having with accessing Android system TTS
Pleco Chinese Dictionary version 3.2.93
Updated At: 2024-01-19
Changes: Minor update with data file updates for CC-CEDICT and our embedded Chinese font files, plus support for adaptive icons and a few bug fixes.
Pleco Chinese Dictionary version 3.2.92
Updated At: 2024-01-05
Changes: Policy compliance update
Pleco Chinese Dictionary version 3.2.91
Updated At: 2023-07-28
Changes: Bug fixes.
Disclaimer
Official Google Play Link
We do not host Pleco Chinese Dictionary on our servers. We did not scan it for viruses, adware, spyware or other type of malware. This app is hosted by Google and passed their terms and conditions to be listed there. We recommend caution when installing it.
The Google Play link for Pleco Chinese Dictionary is provided to you by apps112.com without any warranties, representations or guarantees of any kind, so access it at your own risk.
If you have questions regarding this particular app contact the publisher directly. For questions about the functionalities of apps112.com contact us.
