Introduction to dictionary items
BETA
Dictionary items are items we’ve vendored in from CC-CEDICT. They always consist of multiple characters, but this may change in the future.
Viewing the dictionary
To start using dictionary items, you’ll need to first enroll into the Beta. To do so, navigate to your application settings and scroll until you find the Enroll into the Dictionary Beta.
Toggle it on and hit save.
Accessing the dictionary
After you navigate back to the Dashboard, you should see in the Curriculum dropdown a new link.
Click on that and you’ll be presented with the Dictionary Search.
Dictionary Search
You can type in pinyin, characters, or any English word and the page will populate with close matches.
Once you find a Dictionary item you’re interested in adding, click on it to navigate to its individual page.
Dictionary item page
Here is where you can do a few things, like adding your own definitions or changing the primary definition. Let’s go over what’s displayed.
Pronunciation
You can see the pinyin and zhuyin right underneath the Dictionary item. Clicking on the little Play button will play the sound in your preferred voice.
Characters
If the dictionary item has any characters that are in HanziHero, they’ll be displayed here. You’ll need to learn or pass these characters first before seeing the dictionary item, depending on your word unlocking settings.
Definitions
Here are all of the definitions this Dictionary item has. These “official definitions” we handle a little differently in our reviews:
- Everything that is separated by a semicolon counts as its own individual answer.
- Parentheses are also ignored in answering.
Other than that, it’s the same as answering with any other item in HanziHero.
If the given “official definitions” are less than satisfactory you can add your own definitions.
Prioritize a dictionary item
To add it to your dictionary lessons, just click on the Prioritize button on the top right.
This will queue it into your lessons with the requisite characters coming first. When you pass all of the characters, it’ll then enter your dictionary lesson queue. You can read more about this separate queue under the daily lesson limit documentation.