Laowai: Learn Chinese

A Chinese dictionary and study companion for daily practice: look up a word, save it, and come back ready to remember it.

Laowai is a Chinese dictionary and study companion for English-speaking learners. Find a word, understand it in context, add it to a list, and make it part of your daily practice.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

• Search Chinese words by characters, pinyin, or English meaning. • Use a large offline Chinese-English dictionary with simplified and traditional forms, pinyin, and definitions. • See Chinese-English example sentences and related words. • Build your own word lists or study HSK, topic, and book-based collections. • Review words with short, adaptive study sessions. • Read Chinese texts with pinyin, word definitions, and translations nearby. • Keep your learning visible with widgets, reminders, and a Live Activity.

FREE AND PRO

The dictionary and search are free. Laowai Pro adds unlimited study sessions, iCloud progress sync, and unlimited widgets and Live Activity review. Subscription prices and terms are shown in the app before purchase.

Laowai is designed for the small moments that make Chinese stick: a quick lookup after class, a list for the words you keep meeting, and a short review when you have a few minutes.

DATA SOURCES

Dictionary data is derived from CC-CEDICT and is available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Chinese-English examples include Tatoeba data and a first-party Laowai English corpus. Full attributions and licenses are available in the app under Profile > Data sources.

Software: Arseniy Dorogin and Dmitry Polyansky Design: Dmitry Polyansky