Chinese–English Idiom Dictionary

How do I search the Idiom Dictionary?

• Choose either or to determine whether the Chinese components of the search results are displayed in simplified or traditional characters.
• Choose a search method – English or Chinese?
  • If you choose the English search method, enter one or more complete words or the beginning letters of one of more words. Each word (or partial word) must be separated by a space.
  • If you choose the Chinese search method, enter one or more Chinese characters with no space. You can use either simplified or traditional characters.

What is included in the search result?

• The search result includes all the expressions in the Idiom Library that contain your search string as part of the expression. The search results are ranked in order of English usage.
• The first part of the search result displays an English idiom and the second part displays a corresponding Chinese idiom.
  
  For some English idioms there is no corresponding Chinese idiom and for some Chinese idioms there is no corresponding English idiom, so the relevant part of the search result will be empty.
• Click next to any of the search results to view more detailed information.

What is included in the detailed information?

• A list of all the idioms that have the same meaning.
• A definition of the idioms listed.
• Example usages for some or all of the idioms.
• Stories about the origin of the some or all of the idioms.
• The information is presented in English (left column) and Chinese (right column). Use the flags at the top of the Chinese column to switch between traditional and simplified Chinese characters.
• Click on next to any English text to play the corresponding English sound file. If there is no sound icon next to the text, then there is currently no English sound file for that text.
• Click on next to any Chinese idiom to play the corresponding Mandarin sound file. If there is no icon next to the text, then there is currently no Mandarin sound file for that text.
• You can view the pinyin for Chinese text by hovering your mouse pointer over the icon.