CRX id
gacfacdpfimbkgcnlegknnmcccjgcbnp
gacfacdpfimbkgcnlegknnmcccjgcbnp
Description from extension meta
Annotate pinyin, zhuyin/bopomofo, tone, HSK, color, space to Chinese text. The best Chinese popup dictionary for sentence mining
Image from store
Description from store
Hover less, read more using the extension's sentence mode dictionary, saves a lot of time
Instantly makes any websites in Chinese as your learning resources
Look up Chinese / Zhongwen words and phrases while browsing the web
Easily change the hanzi's size and font of the page to make reading more relaxing
Configurable, and easy to use
Can be made to remember 3 websites visited for each word on Recall and Rewrite modules
Includes plenty of useful tools for learners of Mandarin Chinese
Latest version (optimizations):
* Optimized the words separator's processor, it is now using just a 160 KB memory lookup to perform a task.
In the past, it was reading the word's HSK level from a big file which causes the words separator memory consumption to spike up to 100 MB; now the words HSK level info is embedded directly into the code, which is just 160 KB in size
* Optimized memory footprint for Chinese words separator's dictionary, it can now be just 26 MB.
CWS's dictionary can now be made significantly more lightweight than other dictionaries despite CWS having over 180K words (others have 120K words). This can be made possible by making CWS read the dictionary from the database instead of from file. To configure CWS to read the dictionary from the database instead of from file, go to CWS's Options screen and click the button labeled *Save the dictionary to database*. With database use, the dictionary's memory footprint will be reduced from 108 MB down to 26 MB
Other file-based dictionaries' memory footprint:
* Zhongwen: 42 MB
* LiuChan: 82 MB
* Inkah: 76 MB
* Zhongzhong: 45 MB
Versions: https://chinese-words-separator.github.io/versions.html
HOW TO USE:
Simply go to a web page in Chinese, by default the words are separated by colors. Then to use the dictionary, hover over the characters with your mouse to see a sticky note-like pop-up showing the English translation along with the pinyin (or zhuyin/bopomofo) romanization; on phone or tablet, just tap a word or sentence
Page features:
* Words separator, use rotating colors or space for separating the words
* Color-coded tones
* Color-coded HSK level (汉语水平考试 (Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi))
* Configurable hanzi size
* Underline garden-paths on hanzi combinations
* Brackets around separable verbs
* Annotation
* Pinyin
* Zhuyin/bopomofo
* HSK number
* Tone marks
* Configurable annotation size
* Show annotation under or above the character
* Can be configured to only show annotations when hovered
* Can be configured to show annotations for the selected HSK levels only
* Configurable opacity for annotation
* Italicized guide for words with multiple meanings/pronunciations
* With no underline = 2 meanings/pronunciations
* With one underline = 3 meanings/pronunciations
* With two underlines = 4 or more meanings/pronunciations
* Links/buttons can be configured to be excluded from colors, hanzi size, annotations
* Customizable colors for rotating colors, HSK-based colors, tone-based colors
* Parallel text: Hovered sentence/phrase will show its parallel English text on the sidebar
* Spaced Repetition System that is based on words you frequently read or encountered
* Recall: SRS for reading hanzi
* Rewrite: SRS for writing hanzi
* Page conversion
* Traditional to Simplified
* Simplified to Traditional
* Revert the page to its original characters (some pages have a mix of traditional and simplified)
* Notes, quick lookup for Chinese language rules. This is editable
* Learning tracking sheet: Hearted words are saved to a Google Sheet
* Calligraphy printer
* Read offline or from sources other than web
* Sentence mining: Look up example sentences from configurable sentence mining sites
* Clipboard functionality
* Separate Chinese words in the clipboard
* Convert Chinese words in clipboard to traditional
* Convert Chinese words in clipboard to simplified
* Scroll to commonly occurring words
* This functionality also shows the number of words you already learned on each HSK level
* Scroll to sentence/phrases by each HSK level
* Tag-less word dictionary: Use this when you won't need pinyin/zhuyin page annotation as much and you will use CWS's dictionary only
* Pre-configured settings
* Beginner: Hanzi size 2x, color-coded tones, space, automatic read-aloud
* Lower-intermediate: Hanzi size 1.75x, show pinyin only when hovered, color-coded tones, space
* Intermediate: Hanzi size 1.5x, tone marks, separate words by rotating colors, no more space between words
* Advanced: Hanzi size 1.25x, no more tone marks, separate words by rotating colors, no more space between words, show only one line definition for each word
* Expert: Hanzi 1x (original size), hide definitions by blurring it. Definitions can be unhidden by clicking it or by pressing keyboard shortcut 'e'
* Mark learned words by doing any of the following:
* Click the word, then type the learned word using pinyin
* Click the word, then speak the learned word using microphone
* Just click the word
* Translate highlighted text by showing a pop-up window of any of the following:
* Google
* DeepL
* Bing
* CWS can be configured to show DeepL and Bing's translations as notification
* CWS can be configured to automatically make Bing translator read its translation
* Read-aloud (text-to-speech) highlighted text
* Copy highlighted text as URL with anchor to its location in the page
* Copy selected text with space between words
* Copy selected traditional text as simplified
* Copy selected text as pinyin
* Copy selected simplified text as traditional
* Copy selected text as zhuyin/bopomofo
* Overridable word segmentations and splitting
* Character variations are converted to their equivalent unified unicode characters so that more characters and words can be looked up from the dictionary
* Hoverless video dictionary for Netflix, YouTube, Viki, WeTV, iQIYI
* English annotation can be positioned under or above the character
* Configurable video speed
* Mimic the dialogues by using the microphone. CWS will tell you if you got it right
Dictionary features:
* Sentence dictionary: Hover less, read more
* Lookup dictionary window can be configured to use maximum height
* Word dictionary, use this when there are more familiar words in a page than unfamiliar ones
* Character dictionary, use this when you want to focus on learning how to write characters and be more focused on learning each character. This can be activated by pressing letter 'x' when either sentence dictionary or word dictionary is active. Can also be activated by right-clicking the red dictionary icon
* Separate the word to its component words by right-clicking (swipe right on phone/tablet) the word
* Separate the character to its component characters and radical by right-clicking (swipe right on phone/tablet) the character
* Configurable dictionary font size
* Can be configured to show both traditional and simplified
* HSK level can be shown beside the hanzi
* Pronunciation guide using either pinyin or zhuyin/bopomofo
* Color blue by default, can be set to no color
* Word dictionary navigation keyboard shortcuts:
* Press 'a' to advance to next word
* Press 'A' to go back to previous word
* Press 'z' to go to next hanzi character
* Copy the word definition to clipboard. Clipboard format is spreadsheet-compatible, e.g., can be pasted to Excel
* Keyboard shortcut 'c' for copy
* Remember the word to learning tracking sheet (a Google Sheet)
* Keyboard shortcut 'r' for remember
* Can be configured to include the link of the source website of the copied/remembered word
* Further lookup for the word:
* On computer, further lookup is using youdao.com. Can be changed to other sources
* To disable CWS on a site, add #no-cws to website's link. You'll use this if your further lookup source (or sentence mining site) have their own pinyin/zhuyin annotations
* On phone/tablet, further lookup is using pleco app. Can be changed to other sources, source can be either web or app
* Show grammar and usage notes from AllSet Learning, can be changed to other sources
* Show vocabulary notes from AllSet Learning, can be changed to other sources
* Can be configured to show one line definition only
* Can be configured to blur the definition for more Chinese immersion
* Use keyboard shortcut 'e' to unhide the blurred definition
* Read-aloud hovered word
* Can use voice type of:
* Mainland China
* Taiwan
* Speech can be configured to slower speed
* Can be set to automatically read-aloud when hovered
* Can use keyboard shortcut 's' to manually use read-aloud
* Can be used in conjunction with keyboard shortcut 'a'
* Keyboard shortcut 'a' and 's' can be pressed simultaneously, this will advance the word dictionary to the next word and read it aloud at the same time
Dictionary sources:
* CC-CEDICT - Over 120K words
* CedPane - Over 70K words, plenty of names and proper nouns
If you need to contribute word definitions, prefer contributing to CC-CEDICT:
https://cc-cedict.org/editor/editor.php?handler=ListChanges
If you need to contribute names and proper nouns, prefer contributing to CedPane:
https://github.com/ssb22/CedPane
To make the extension work on Android, install Kiwi browser on your Android device, then install CWS from chrome web store
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kiwibrowser.browser
To use the extension on Safari on iOS, iPadOS, and macOS, install CWS from:
https://apps.apple.com/app/chinese-words-separator/id1598790017
See functionalities in pictures:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ChineseLanguage/comments/npuqf6/chinese_words_separator/
https://www.reddit.com/r/ChineseLanguage/comments/oj7djv/chinese_words_separator_80_updates/
Latest reviews
- (2023-02-18) Kamil: The pop-up extension with the widest range of features and customizability options. The menu might seem a bit convoluted and some of the options could be explained better but just invest 15minutes, play around with it and you'll figure it out. Would love the developer to add some more features that would make this extension even more amazing. Very useful.
- (2022-09-21) Pe0 Mr: Cool
- (2022-09-04) Naga: There is just so much feature and customization available, this is by far the best pop-up dictionnary extension
- (2022-08-30) Nguyễn Thơm: Toẹt vời ạ! cực kì hữu ích ạ!
- (2022-08-25) Ricardo Yap: I believe this is the best pop up dictionary for chrome extension! Because this extension has many unique features, such as words separator, color coding by HSK, pinyin for every word and even a voice on hover.
- (2022-07-20) Cong Nguyen: I don't know why this plugin has so few users comparing to its very useful feature for new Chinese learner like me? - Pinyin explanation - Words separator - Voice on hover - Translation Definitely one of the best/must have chrome extension for me.
- (2022-07-02) Công Nguyễn: very useful
- (2022-06-27) Konte: Great work, that's exactly what I was looking for. Thanks. Just one suggestion: It would be great if it is possible to disable the extension for certain domains. For some pages, especially for dictionaries, it is quite inconvenient (example: https://dict.leo.org/chinesisch-deutsch/b%C3%B9x%C3%ACng ).
- (2022-01-19) Russell: Excellent, loving it so far!
- (2021-12-02) Sean kim: Awesome! I really used all Chinese dictionary extensions and removed all and use this only. This is the best. It is even working on kiwi mobile browser. Plus, it will be more useful if i can make the size of Hànzi smaller so that it cannot break the layout of website when it is with pinyin. And when i select dictionary as sentence it is little bit difficult to know which range I am hovering. Anyway, Thank you for making this awesome program.
- (2021-10-30) Axel Bryan Joel Yañez Meraz: The dictionary function is too slow.
- (2021-09-22) Dang Van Giang (K16_HL): 真好tool , i like your tool very much, it has beautiful colors and suits perfectly to my needs
- (2021-08-23) Bumble: Amazing functions and work perfect! Very grateful for this extension.
- (2021-04-15) Huzail Hassan: 我不知道你读我的想法。。我今天全尝试天找到这种类扩展， 但是我不找到。 我再尝试了然后。 我找到这新扩展那个今天他做了！ 不可能！！非常谢谢！
Latest issues
- (2023-02-18, v:8.24.84.1030) Kamil: Learned words database sync? Learned words list.
Hi there! First of all, amazing extension you have writtten, it is very useful! I have two questions/suggestions: 1.) Wordlist Sync? Maybe I haven't figured it out but how do I get to sync my known words list across different devices ? I have a windows laptop at work and mac at home. I am logged in with the same google account but I don't think there is a way to sync the word list? I managed to copy the associated file in the extensions folder manually, but that is obviously not very practical. Is there an option somewhere that I missed? If not, any chance to add automatic sync somehow ? 2. Is there a way to show my current learned/unknown word list similar to the 'recall' UI? That might be another way of solving the sync issue above (if sync is not possible). Letting users export/import known word lists to a csv or txt file. Thanks. - (2022-11-30, v:8.24.84.870) Andrew Hunter: Options don't work on subtitles
I'm running into a problem where options don't apply properly to Netflix or YouTube subtitles. The options work properly with plain text, just not subtitles. For example, I wanted to turn off the English translations under the characters, but it does not work. I love the extension so far! Great work! - (2022-11-11, v:8.24.84.800) IEnableMuch Dev: CWS developer here
Word dictionary sometimes have a problem, it goes to the rightmost part of the page when hovering the mouse cursor over the heart icon. ----- This problem is fixed in 8.24.84.802. However, 8.24.84.801 is yet to be approved. ----- The problem was accidentally introduced on changes on November 5. ----- As soon as 8.24.84.801 is approved, the fix release (8.24.84.802) will be submitted to chrome web store. ----- For the meantime, if you need to save the word's definition to Learning Tracking Sheet, use the keyboard shortcut instead of hovering the mouse cursor on the heart icon, the default keyboard shortcut is letter 'r'. As for copying the definition, the default keyboard shortcut is letter 'c'. ----- Sentence dictionary is working fine - (2022-04-27, v:8.24.46.0) Gary Peterson: Can't get Chinese Word Separator to be authenticated to use Google API on Google sheets
I'm using Chrome browser with Chinese Word Separator but cannot get it to authenticate to use Google API on my Google sheets. I'm using Google as my search engine. Everything else on Chinese Word Separator works great. When I right click the red heart, it says it's copied into the "Copied Definitions in Tab-delimited spreadsheet" but it doesn't copy onto my google docs. When I left click it says "Chinese Words Separator is not yet authenticated to use Google API on your Google Sheet. Quit the browser and click (heart) again......" When I click the heart or press "r" nothing happenss. I have set up my own google docs and it is linked correctly.. - (2021-08-29, v:8.5.1) Bumble: What is the meaning and function of '月' when the extension icon is clicked?
What is the meaning and function of '月' when the extension icon is clicked? I really appreciate your extension. Brilliant one!