cc-cedict is a helper library for working with the CC-CEDICT Chinese-English dictionary. It provides tools for retrieving words and definitions in both simplified and traditional Chinese, as well as processing variants and pinyin.
- Definition retrieval by simplified or traditional Chinese characters.
- Support for handling pinyin and word variants.
- Support for handling classifiers.
- Efficient access thanks to pre-mapping entries.
- Built-in functions for case-sensitive pinyin matching and definition merging.
Install via NPM:
npm install cc-cedictOn installation a postinstall script is run that attempts to download the latest CC-CEDICT dictionary and rebuild the dictionary data based on it. If it fails, the package falls back to CC-CEDICT data processed at build time.
The rationale behind the postinstall script is so that package users could always have fresh CC-CEDICT data without depending on a new version of this package being released. This can be especially important if the package isn't updated for a long time, while CC-CEDICT on the other hand is constantly updated.
import cedict from 'cc-cedict';
// Retrieve a word by its simplified form
cedict.getBySimplified('中国');
// Retrieve a word by its traditional form
cedict.getByTraditional('中國');
// Retrieve a word by its pinyin
// Pinyin is space separated and with tones 1 - 5, where 5 is the neutral tone. Only exact matches are supported.
cedict.getByTraditional('前邊', "qian2 bian5");
// Disable case sensitive search
cedict.getByTraditional('前邊', "QIAN2 bian5", { caseSensitiveSearch: false });
// Retrieve a word by its pinyin and merge results from different cases
cedict.getByTraditional('張', null, { mergeCases: true });
// Return results as an array
cedict.getBySimplified('只', null, { asObject: false });
// Do not return variants
cedict.getBySimplified('家具', null, { allowVariants: false });Both getBySimplified and getByTraditional support configuration overrides using a JSON object:
const result = cedict.getBySimplified('你好', pinyin, configOverrides);The keys supported by the config overrides object are:
caseSensitiveSearch: Whether pinyin search is case-sensitive (default:true).mergeCases: Merge pinyin cases in results by converting them to lowercase (default:false). An example of this is 張 (zhang1/Zhang1) - CC-CEDICT separates the capitalized pinyin into a separate entry, this option decides whether they should be merged or be separate. If they are merged, definitions from the lowercase definition go first.asObject: Return results as an object (pinyin -> definitions) instead of an array (default:true).allowVariants: Include word variants in the results (default:true).
// general example
cedict.getBySimplified('中国');{
"Zhong1 guo2": [
{
"traditional": "中國",
"simplified": "中国",
"pinyin": "Zhong1 guo2",
"english": [
"China"
],
"classifiers": [],
"variant_of": [],
"is_variant": false
}
]
}// Example for case sensitive search being disabled and pinyin search
cedict.getByTraditional('前邊', "QIAN2 bian5", { caseSensitiveSearch: false });{
"qian2 bian5": [
{
"traditional": "前邊",
"simplified": "前边",
"pinyin": "qian2 bian5",
"english": [
"front",
"the front side",
"in front of"
],
"classifiers": [],
"variant_of": [],
"is_variant": false
},
{
"traditional": "前邊兒",
"simplified": "前边儿",
"pinyin": "qian2 bian5 r5",
"english": [
"erhua variant of 前邊|前边[qian2 bian5]"
],
"classifiers": [],
"variant_of": [
{
"traditional": "前邊",
"simplified": "前边",
"pinyin": "qian2 bian5"
}
],
"is_variant": true
}
]
}// Example for cases not being merged, default behavior
cedict.getByTraditional('張');{
"zhang1": [
{
"traditional": "張",
"simplified": "张",
"pinyin": "zhang1",
"english": [
"to open up",
"to spread",
"sheet of paper",
"classifier for flat objects, sheet",
"classifier for votes"
],
"classifiers": [],
"variant_of": [],
"is_variant": false
}
],
"Zhang1": [
{
"traditional": "張",
"simplified": "张",
"pinyin": "Zhang1",
"english": [
"surname Zhang"
],
"classifiers": [],
"variant_of": [],
"is_variant": false
}
]
}// Example for case merging
cedict.getByTraditional('張', null, { mergeCases: true });{
"zhang1": [
{
"traditional": "張",
"simplified": "张",
"pinyin": "zhang1",
"english": [
"to open up",
"to spread",
"sheet of paper",
"classifier for flat objects, sheet",
"classifier for votes",
"surname Zhang"
],
"classifiers": [],
"variant_of": [],
"is_variant": false
}
]
}// Example for returning results as an array
cedict.getByTraditional('張', null, { asObject: false });[
{
"traditional": "張",
"simplified": "张",
"pinyin": "zhang1",
"english": [
"to open up",
"to spread",
"sheet of paper",
"classifier for flat objects, sheet",
"classifier for votes"
],
"classifiers": [],
"variant_of": [],
"is_variant": false
},
{
"traditional": "張",
"simplified": "张",
"pinyin": "Zhang1",
"english": [
"surname Zhang"
],
"classifiers": [],
"variant_of": [],
"is_variant": false
}
]// Example for variants in output
cedict.getBySimplified('家具');{
"jia1 ju4": [
{
"traditional": "家具",
"simplified": "家具",
"pinyin": "jia1 ju4",
"english": [
"furniture"
],
"classifiers": [
[
"件",
"件",
"jian4"
],
[
"套",
"套",
"tao4"
]
],
"variant_of": [],
"is_variant": false
},
{
"traditional": "傢俱",
"simplified": "家俱",
"pinyin": "jia1 ju4",
"english": [
"variant of 家具[jia1 ju4]"
],
"classifiers": [],
"variant_of": [
{
"traditional": "家具",
"simplified": "家具",
"pinyin": "jia1 ju4"
}
],
"is_variant": true
},
{
"traditional": "傢具",
"simplified": "傢具",
"pinyin": "jia1 ju4",
"english": [
"variant of 家具[jia1 ju4]"
],
"classifiers": [],
"variant_of": [
{
"traditional": "家具",
"simplified": "家具",
"pinyin": "jia1 ju4"
}
],
"is_variant": true
},
{
"traditional": "家俱",
"simplified": "家俱",
"pinyin": "jia1 ju4",
"english": [
"variant of 家具[jia1 ju4]"
],
"classifiers": [],
"variant_of": [
{
"traditional": "家具",
"simplified": "家具",
"pinyin": "jia1 ju4"
}
],
"is_variant": true
}
]
}// Example for variants being omitted from the output
cedict.getBySimplified('家具', null, { allowVariants: false });{
"jia1 ju4": [
{
"traditional": "家具",
"simplified": "家具",
"pinyin": "jia1 ju4",
"english": [
"furniture"
],
"classifiers": [
[
"件",
"件",
"jian4"
],
[
"套",
"套",
"tao4"
]
],
"variant_of": [],
"is_variant": false
}
]
}Contributions are welcome! Feel free to open an issue or submit a pull request on GitHub.
This project is licensed under the MIT License.