<p>My favorite online dictionary, <strong><a href="http://www.nciku.com/" rel="nofollow">Nciku</a></strong> lets you draw in a character, and then tells you what it is. Super useful if you can't find out what the radical is, or just want a quicker way to look something out.</p>

<p>My favorite iOS app, <strong><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/nz/app/pleco-chinese-dictionary/id341922306?mt=8" rel="nofollow">Pleco</a></strong> has this functionality, along with Optical Character Recognition (OCR) so you can hold up/take pictures of one or more Characters, and it will then give you the definitions of them. It's pretty cool. </p>

<p>Are these the sort of things you mean?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-12-24T04:22:45.463Z
Yes, but also, perhaps some kinds that are used in books.
Village
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-12-24T04:16:09.243Z
2011-12-24T04:16:09.243Z
Ciaocibai
<p>You can just search it by www.baidu.com which can input character by drawing or search it by any search engine with Chinese input method supporting drawing.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-12-25T16:25:57.290Z
2011-12-25T16:25:57.290Z
xiecheng127
<p>You can also use Wiktionary to look up a word if you know the pronunciation and the meaning but you don't know the character.</p>
<p>Example: <a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ye4#Mandarin" rel="nofollow noreferrer">ye4</a></p>
<p>I also quite frequently use <a href="http://www.google.com.hk/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Google HK</a> to perform a search, which is useful for when you have a sentence, and type in something like shanshuihua, it will provide you a list of options in Chinese.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-08-07T17:36:00.847Z
the OP asked for resources in situations where *only the character* can be used to look something up.
magnetar
CC BY-SA 4.0
2011-12-26T10:00:40.077Z
2021-04-10T22:50:14.937Z
2021-04-10T22:50:14.937Z
going
<p>This question could probably best be answered <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_input_method" rel="nofollow noreferrer">by Wikipedia</a> as there are many, many methods.</p>

<p>One relatively common one is to look up the character <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stroke_count_method" rel="nofollow noreferrer">by stroke count, then by stroke order</a>. In this system, there are five types of strokes and each is assigned a number.</p>

<pre><code>+--------+------------------------------+
| Number | Stroke type                  |
+--------+------------------------------+
|      1 | Horizontal, or rising        |
|      2 | Vertical                     |
|      3 | Falling to the Left          |
|      4 | Dot, or Falling to the Right |
|      5 | Turning                      |
+--------+------------------------------+
</code></pre>

<p>This is the method used to look up characters in 现代汉语通用字笔顺规范, the official character stroke order reference in mainland China. For example, below is the character 永 in this book:</p>

<p><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/E7my5.png" alt="enter image description here"></p>

<p>If you want to look up this character, you will first go to the page with the 5-strokes characters, then you would search for the dot stroke (4), then the hook (5), etc. Basically, its code would be 45534.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-12-24T04:28:32.673Z
2018-01-09T14:54:46.130Z
2018-01-09T14:54:46.130Z
laurent
<p>Some dictionaries provide a radical lookup for finding characters. Are there other systems available <em>besides</em> radical lookup for finding the meaning of a word when one only has the character?</p>

<dictionary><character-identification><radicals>
What methods are available for looking up a character?
# What methods are available for looking up a character?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2011-12-24)

Some dictionaries provide a radical lookup for finding characters. Are there other systems available *besides* radical lookup for finding the meaning of a word when one only has the character?

**Tags:** dictionary, character-identification, radicals

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## 4 answers

### Answer by username_5 on 2011-12-24. Score: 4 | Accepted answer

This question could probably best be answered by Wikipedia as there are many, many methods.
One relatively common one is to look up the character by stroke count, then by stroke order. In this system, there are five types of strokes and each is assigned a number.
+--------+------------------------------+
| Number | Stroke type                  |
+--------+------------------------------+
|      1 | Horizontal, or rising        |
|      2 | Vertical                     |
|      3 | Falling to the Left          |
|      4 | Dot, or Falling to the Right |
|      5 | Turning                      |
+--------+------------------------------+

This is the method used to look up characters in 现代汉语通用字笔顺规范, the official character stroke order reference in mainland China. For example, below is the character 永 in this book:

If you want to look up this character, you will first go to the page with the 5-strokes characters, then you would search for the dot stroke (4), then the hook (5), etc. Basically, its code would be 45534.


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### Answer by username_1 on 2011-12-24. Score: 3

My favorite online dictionary, **[Nciku](http://www.nciku.com/)** lets you draw in a character, and then tells you what it is. Super useful if you can't find out what the radical is, or just want a quicker way to look something out.

My favorite iOS app, **[Pleco](http://itunes.apple.com/nz/app/pleco-chinese-dictionary/id341922306?mt=8)** has this functionality, along with Optical Character Recognition (OCR) so you can hold up/take pictures of one or more Characters, and it will then give you the definitions of them. It's pretty cool.

Are these the sort of things you mean?

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Yes, but also, perhaps some kinds that are used in books.  

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### Answer by username_2 on 2011-12-25. Score: 2

You can just search it by www.baidu.com which can input character by drawing or search it by any search engine with Chinese input method supporting drawing.


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### Answer by username_3 on 2011-12-26. Score: -1

You can also use Wiktionary to look up a word if you know the pronunciation and the meaning but you don't know the character.

Example: [ye4](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ye4#Mandarin)

I also quite frequently use [Google HK](http://www.google.com.hk/) to perform a search, which is useful for when you have a sentence, and type in something like shanshuihua, it will provide you a list of options in Chinese.

> **Comments:**
> **username_4**: the OP asked for resources in situations where *only the character* can be used to look something up.  

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