How to Look Up a Character in a Chinese Dictionary: 5 Methods
Five ways to find a character in a Chinese dictionary: by radical, by stroke count, by pronunciation, by four-corner code and by Cangjie code or handwriting online.
Key takeaways
- If you can’t pronounce a character, use its radical or stroke count.
- If you can pronounce it, use Pinyin (Mandarin) or Jyutping (Cantonese).
- Online, the fastest methods are Cangjie codes, handwriting input, or pasting the character.
Method 1: radical index (部首檢字)
This is the classic method for unknown characters.
- Identify the radical. For 湖, it is 氵, filed under 水 (radical 85). See radicals explained for tips.
- Count the radical’s strokes and find it in the radical table at the front of the dictionary (水: 4 strokes).
- Count the remaining strokes. 湖 minus 氵 is 胡: 9 strokes.
- Go to the radical’s section, find the list for “+9 strokes” and locate 湖 with its page number.
On this site, every radical page lists its characters grouped by additional strokes in the same way.
Method 2: total stroke count (總筆畫檢字)
When the radical is unclear, count all strokes and look in the total-stroke index. Then scan characters with that count, usually ordered by the first stroke. It is slower because each count has many characters, but it always works. Read how to count strokes first and browse our stroke count index.
Method 3: by pronunciation
Modern dictionaries are often ordered by Pinyin. Hong Kong Cantonese dictionaries may provide Jyutping or other Cantonese romanisation indexes. If you know the sound, this is the fastest printed method. Try our Jyutping and Pinyin indexes.
Method 4: four-corner method (四角號碼)
Invented by Wang Yunwu (王雲五) in the 1920s, the four-corner method gives each character a number based on the stroke shapes at its four corners, using digits 0–9 for shapes such as horizontal, vertical, dot and cross. It is very fast once learned but is now mainly used in older reference works.
Method 5: online lookup
- Cangjie: if you can decompose it, type the code in the dictionary search, for example HBND for 學.
- Copy and paste the character from any text into the search box.
- Handwriting input on your phone lets you draw an unknown character, then paste it.
Every character page gives the radical, stroke count, readings, Cangjie code and stroke order, combining all methods in one place.
Related guides
Radicals (部首) explained
What radicals are, how the 214 Kangxi radicals organise every dictionary, the variant forms they take, and how radicals differ from Cangjie’s 24 keys.
How to count strokes
How to count strokes correctly, why turning strokes count as one, and the radicals such as 艹, 辶 and 阝 that trip people up.
Jyutping & Pinyin basics
How the Cantonese Jyutping and Mandarin Pinyin systems spell sounds, how tones are marked, and how to use them to find a character when you don’t know its Cangjie code.
What is Cangjie?
How the shape-based Cangjie system turns any Chinese character into a code of up to five letters, and why Hong Kong typists still swear by it.