<p>Ok, I could have gotten this done a lot sooner but I'm a lazy prick, here it is:</p>

<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/NQqUx.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/NQqUx.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>

<p>Wasn't what I was originally planning on doing when I got off work but here it is. I searched up "100 most basic Chinese characters" and put those through and it pumped out 1500 unique words. I might work on this further in the future but for now I don't event want to look at it. There's a button to switch between Simplified and Traditional but I haven't set it up yet.</p>

<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/z27VI.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/z27VI.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>

<p>Source:</p>

<p><a href="https://github.com/Jkmcameron/ChineseWordGenerator" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://github.com/Jkmcameron/ChineseWordGenerator</a></p>

<p>Executable Jar:</p>

<p><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ewp5PVxDQv55GuuvF81pDxl9ktlI3QqK/view?usp=sharing" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ewp5PVxDQv55GuuvF81pDxl9ktlI3QqK/view?usp=sharing</a></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-03-13T13:12:22.903Z
Lol. 100 characters theoretically could make 10000 two-character words. Be happy there are only 1500. Chinese characters are this powerful! :)  That being said, some of the words may not be very urgent for beginners. For instance, of the words in your picture, I've never heard of 头家, and 面面 is not even a word. Maybe it'll be a better idea to get a word frequency list and generate words from that.
Betty
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-03-13T13:19:17.547Z
Also, be careful of the "semantic satiation" phenomenon (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_satiation). If a person reads the same character for too many times in a short time, the character may suddenly become unrecognizable. It just happened to me reading the 头 words. (I'm a native speaker of Chinese.) Don't know about how this will affect learners, though.
Betty
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-03-13T13:54:50.507Z
@Betty this is pulled directly from the CC-CEDICT database that Pleco and all of the other big dictionaries use as a backend
小奥利奥
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-03-13T13:55:50.730Z
@Betty, funny you brought that up, while j was programming this I kept typing the word "word" and it stopped looking like a real word to me
小奥利奥
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-03-13T14:02:24.037Z
sure, I mean a big dictionary may be quite comprehensive, and a learner probably does not need to master all the not-so-common words. However, I know people who aim to memorize whole dictionaries, so do what you like. :)
Betty
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-03-13T12:37:58.797Z
2020-03-13T12:37:58.797Z
小奥利奥
<p>the ministry of education, taiwan maintained the dictionary 國語辭典, which is free to download.</p>

<p><a href="https://language.moe.gov.tw/001/Upload/Files/site_content/M0001/respub/index.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">教育部國語辭典公眾授權網</a></p>

<p>these are excel files, you may export them into utf8 txt files, join together, then “play” with it.</p>

<p>personally, i used shell commands to grep what i want, if you know java &amp; c++; no difficulty lah.</p>

<p>if the “重編國語辭典 修訂本” is too advanced; then, try the “國語辭典簡編本”.</p>

<p>have fun :)</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-03-09T12:09:12.463Z
2020-03-09T12:09:12.463Z
水巷孑蠻
<p>Here's an awk command that outputs the CC-EDICT (<code>cedict_ts.u8</code>) lines for words which have (simplified) characters belonging to <code>ListOfChars</code>.</p>

<pre><code>awk '{
  ListOfChars = "在现实生产";
  count = 0;

  for (i=1; i &lt;= length(ListOfChars); i++) {
    if($2 ~ substr(ListOfChars,i,1)) count++;
  }

  if(count == length($2)) print
}' cedict_ts.u8
</code></pre>

<p>The output is:</p>

<pre><code>在 在 [zai4] /(located) at/(to be) in/to exist/in the middle of doing sth/(indicating an action in progress)/
實 实 [shi2] /real/true/honest/really/solid/fruit/seed/definitely/
實在 实在 [shi2 zai4] /really/actually/indeed/true/real/honest/dependable/(philosophy) reality/
實現 实现 [shi2 xian4] /to achieve/to implement/to realize/to bring about/
現 现 [xian4] /to appear/present/now/existing/current/
現在 现在 [xian4 zai4] /now/at present/at the moment/modern/current/nowadays/
現實 现实 [xian4 shi2] /reality/actuality/real/actual/realistic/pragmatic/materialistic/self-interested/
生 生 [sheng1] /to be born/to give birth/life/to grow/raw/uncooked/student/
生產 生产 [sheng1 chan3] /to produce/to manufacture/to give birth to a child/
產 产 [chan3] /to give birth/to reproduce/to produce/product/resource/estate/property/
產生 产生 [chan3 sheng1] /to arise/to come into being/to come about/to give rise to/to bring into being/to bring about/to produce/to engender/to generate/to appear/appearance/emergence/generation/production/yield/
</code></pre>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-03-14T00:23:34.477Z
Yo I already made a whole program, give me my free time back or I'm gonna cry
小奥利奥
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-03-13T23:50:15.460Z
2020-03-13T23:50:15.460Z
Becky 李蓓
<p>I figured that it'd be more beneficial for me currently if I get a better grasp of the characters I already know rather than learning new ones, so I've compiled a list of all the characters I've learned so far. I am wondering if there is a piece of software or website that I can use, where I can input a list of characters and it outputs a list of words that can be formed using only those characters? </p>

<p>As it stands, I can learn how to write characters very easily, and I can remember the pinyin for each character easily, but I can't for the life of me remember what tone should be associated with the character. I hope that by becoming familiar with the characters in as many different combinations as possible I'll hopefully remember their tones better.</p>

<p>If nothing else, I'd be able to expand my vocabulary without increasing the number of characters that I already have trouble remembering the tones for.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-03-09T02:05:25.817Z
It'll easy (for a programmer) to write such a program with predefined word list to draw from. However, as far as I know, there no such thing out there that is ready to use.
fefe
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-03-09T02:50:02.867Z
@fefe I'm proficient in Java and C++, if you know of any readily accessibly Mandarin word databases I could make it myself
小奥利奥
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-03-09T03:57:52.803Z
What about this: https://github.com/fxsjy/jieba/tree/master/extra_dict   I don't know how good it is though ...
fefe
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-03-09T07:46:02.217Z
https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?page=cedict  this should make a good list. It also contains word translations.
fefe
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-03-09T11:41:04.923Z
@fefe thanks, I haven't looked at it yet but that aught to work. I wont get a chance to start anything until 2 in the morning tomorrow since I work nights, but if I get everything working and a platform to post it on I'll link it here for posterity's sake
小奥利奥
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-03-12T16:46:14.157Z
A side note, Cangjie now which is regarded as an IME, used to be a popular tool for creating characters from components when Unicode wasn't here yet. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cangjie_input_method#Early_Cangjie_system) http://chidic.eduhk.hk/v.php?id=11128&m=wt The reverse lookup method with online Cangjie dictionaries would be possible with some level of success.
Daniel Cheung
<characters><software>
Is there a way to discover unique word combinations from a list of characters?
# Is there a way to discover unique word combinations from a list of characters?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-03-09)

I figured that it'd be more beneficial for me currently if I get a better grasp of the characters I already know rather than learning new ones, so I've compiled a list of all the characters I've learned so far. I am wondering if there is a piece of software or website that I can use, where I can input a list of characters and it outputs a list of words that can be formed using only those characters?

As it stands, I can learn how to write characters very easily, and I can remember the pinyin for each character easily, but I can't for the life of me remember what tone should be associated with the character. I hope that by becoming familiar with the characters in as many different combinations as possible I'll hopefully remember their tones better.

If nothing else, I'd be able to expand my vocabulary without increasing the number of characters that I already have trouble remembering the tones for.

**Tags:** characters, software
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: It'll easy (for a programmer) to write such a program with predefined word list to draw from. However, as far as I know, there no such thing out there that is ready to use.  
> **username_0**: @fefe I'm proficient in Java and C++, if you know of any readily accessibly Mandarin word databases I could make it myself  
> **username_1**: What about this: https://github.com/fxsjy/jieba/tree/master/extra_dict   I don't know how good it is though ...  
> **username_1**: https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?page=cedict  this should make a good list. It also contains word translations.  
> **username_0**: @fefe thanks, I haven't looked at it yet but that aught to work. I wont get a chance to start anything until 2 in the morning tomorrow since I work nights, but if I get everything working and a platform to post it on I'll link it here for posterity's sake  
> **username_2**: A side note, Cangjie now which is regarded as an IME, used to be a popular tool for creating characters from components when Unicode wasn't here yet. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cangjie_input_method#Early_Cangjie_system) http://chidic.eduhk.hk/v.php?id=11128&m=wt The reverse lookup method with online Cangjie dictionaries would be possible with some level of success.  

---

## 3 answers

### Answer by username_0 on 2020-03-13. Score: 2 | Accepted answer

Ok, I could have gotten this done a lot sooner but I'm a lazy prick, here it is:

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/NQqUx.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/NQqUx.png)

Wasn't what I was originally planning on doing when I got off work but here it is. I searched up "100 most basic Chinese characters" and put those through and it pumped out 1500 unique words. I might work on this further in the future but for now I don't event want to look at it. There's a button to switch between Simplified and Traditional but I haven't set it up yet.

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/z27VI.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/z27VI.png)

Source:

<https://github.com/Jkmcameron/ChineseWordGenerator>

Executable Jar:

<https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ewp5PVxDQv55GuuvF81pDxl9ktlI3QqK/view?usp=sharing>

> **Comments:**
> **username_3**: Lol. 100 characters theoretically could make 10000 two-character words. Be happy there are only 1500. Chinese characters are this powerful! :)  That being said, some of the words may not be very urgent for beginners. For instance, of the words in your picture, I've never heard of 头家, and 面面 is not even a word. Maybe it'll be a better idea to get a word frequency list and generate words from that.  
> **username_3**: Also, be careful of the "semantic satiation" phenomenon (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_satiation). If a person reads the same character for too many times in a short time, the character may suddenly become unrecognizable. It just happened to me reading the 头 words. (I'm a native speaker of Chinese.) Don't know about how this will affect learners, though.  
> **username_0**: @Betty this is pulled directly from the CC-CEDICT database that Pleco and all of the other big dictionaries use as a backend  
> **username_0**: @Betty, funny you brought that up, while j was programming this I kept typing the word "word" and it stopped looking like a real word to me  
> **username_3**: sure, I mean a big dictionary may be quite comprehensive, and a learner probably does not need to master all the not-so-common words. However, I know people who aim to memorize whole dictionaries, so do what you like. :)  

---

### Answer by username_4 on 2020-03-09. Score: 0

the ministry of education, taiwan maintained the dictionary 國語辭典, which is free to download.

[教育部國語辭典公眾授權網](https://language.moe.gov.tw/001/Upload/Files/site_content/M0001/respub/index.html)

these are excel files, you may export them into utf8 txt files, join together, then “play” with it.

personally, i used shell commands to grep what i want, if you know java & c++; no difficulty lah.

if the “重編國語辭典 修訂本” is too advanced; then, try the “國語辭典簡編本”.

have fun :)


---

### Answer by username_5 on 2020-03-13. Score: 0

Here's an awk command that outputs the CC-EDICT (cedict_ts.u8) lines for words which have (simplified) characters belonging to ListOfChars.
awk '{
  ListOfChars = "在现实生产";
  count = 0;

  for (i=1; i <= length(ListOfChars); i++) {
    if($2 ~ substr(ListOfChars,i,1)) count++;
  }

  if(count == length($2)) print
}' cedict_ts.u8

The output is:
在 在 [zai4] /(located) at/(to be) in/to exist/in the middle of doing sth/(indicating an action in progress)/
實 实 [shi2] /real/true/honest/really/solid/fruit/seed/definitely/
實在 实在 [shi2 zai4] /really/actually/indeed/true/real/honest/dependable/(philosophy) reality/
實現 实现 [shi2 xian4] /to achieve/to implement/to realize/to bring about/
現 现 [xian4] /to appear/present/now/existing/current/
現在 现在 [xian4 zai4] /now/at present/at the moment/modern/current/nowadays/
現實 现实 [xian4 shi2] /reality/actuality/real/actual/realistic/pragmatic/materialistic/self-interested/
生 生 [sheng1] /to be born/to give birth/life/to grow/raw/uncooked/student/
生產 生产 [sheng1 chan3] /to produce/to manufacture/to give birth to a child/
產 产 [chan3] /to give birth/to reproduce/to produce/product/resource/estate/property/
產生 产生 [chan3 sheng1] /to arise/to come into being/to come about/to give rise to/to bring into being/to bring about/to produce/to engender/to generate/to appear/appearance/emergence/generation/production/yield/

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Yo I already made a whole program, give me my free time back or I'm gonna cry  

---

