AppLink Apps
Pleco Chinese Dictionary
Pleco is a comprehensive Chinese learning companion that offers a plethora of features to aid in language learning. As a well-established company in the mobile Chinese learning app industry, Pleco has been providing top-quality apps since 2001.
The app boasts an impressive array of dictionaries, including the popular CC-CEDICT with over 110,000 entries, and their own PLC Dictionary with 125,000 entries and example sentences. Users also have access to numerous free and paid add-on dictionaries from renowned publishers like Oxford, Longman, and Commercial Press.
One of Pleco's standout features is its powerful merged search, which allows users to search for words in Chinese characters, Pinyin, or English. The app provides a combined and frequency-sorted result list, saving users from the hassle of flipping through multiple dictionaries.
Additionally, Pleco offers various links and cross-references, enabling users to quickly access character components, break down words into individual characters, and search for example sentences across all dictionaries. The app also prides itself on its visually appealing typography and offers alternate Chinese fonts for customization.
Pleco is designed to accommodate users from different regions, supporting both traditional and simplified Chinese characters. It displays headword readings in Pinyin and Zhuyin and even supports Cantonese in some dictionaries. The app also provides audio pronunciation using iOS' built-in text-to-speech system.
The document reader feature allows users to import text from a variety of sources, such as the clipboard or files in formats like HTML, DOC, DOCX, PDF, and EPUB. Additionally, the app offers OCR capabilities, allowing users to look up words by pointing their device's camera at them or tapping on them in still images.
With Pleco's fullscreen handwriting input, users can utilize the entire screen for writing Chinese characters and benefit from advanced stroke order tolerance. Flashcards, which can be created from any dictionary entry, offer various study modes including fill-in-the-blanks handwriting and tone drills.
The app also provides stroke order diagrams for over 500 characters for free, with an option to upgrade to the paid version for access to diagrams for 28,000 characters. Pleco further allows users to create their own dictionaries and entries as they encounter new words.
With no ads and a strong focus on customer support, Pleco ensures users a seamless learning experience. They pride themselves on their active user community and have been continuously improving their products for over two decades, across different platforms.
Paid add-ons can be transferred to other devices linked to the user's iTunes account. By simply installing the free app and restoring purchases, users can activate their add-ons on each device.
For further inquiries, users can get in touch with Pleco's customer support through various channels, including email, a contact form on their website, or the in-app "Contact Support" command.