Simplified Chinese Character Dictionary: A new approach to arranging, explaining and looking up Chinese characters

In this dictionary characters are grouped into series of characters, which enables the user to find characters in a more intuitive way than is possible with standard dictionaries. Each character series is headed by a series header, which is usually the phonetic part of the characters in a series. Series are in their turn grouped into character tables (CTs), and each CT is headed by the component that is present in all characters and series header in the CT. This arrangement has several advantages:

1. It is easier to find a character, because users will quickly get used to thinking in terms of series. Locating a series is much easier than locating individual characters, because while there are more than 5,700 characters in this dictionary, they are divided over 1500+ series, grouped into 357 CTs. This arrangement makes it easier to locate them. Besides, once a user has located a series, the next time when he or she is looking for a character that is a member of the same series, it will be much easier to find it.

2. It helps to remember characters, because when looking up a new character, you can review other characters in the same series that you have studied before.

3. It helps to remember the sound of characters, because the sound of a character is often the same as that of other characters in the same series.

4. It helps to remember the meaning of characters, as each parent/phonetic is provided with a short etymology, explaining its historical background. Since late 2021 the second, completely revised edition has become available for both versions of the CCD. The main differences with the first edition are:

* more than 90% of the HSK-6 vocabulary has been integrated, this includes HSK-1 to HSK-5.

* all example words and phrases have pinyin romanizations added to them.