Zimu: Chinese Dictionary

Point your camera and read real Chinese: on-device OCR, contextual pinyin, full translation, and a dictionary in your own language. Zimu Pro is free for 7 days.

Zimu is a modern Chinese dictionary and reader for people who actually read real Chinese: menus, signs, books, subtitles. It does more than look up words you already know.

Point your camera at printed Chinese and Zimu turns it into tappable, segmented words with pinyin, right there on your device. Tap any word to see its meaning, its pronunciation, and the sentence it came from. Save it to your notebook and review it later with spaced-repetition flashcards. Scan, look up, save, review: the whole reading loop, all in one app.

It all runs on your device, offline. There's no account, no sign-up, no ads, and nothing gets uploaded.

READ REAL CHINESE WITH YOUR CAMERA • On-device OCR for printed simplified and traditional Chinese • Every word in a scan becomes tappable for pinyin and meaning • Translate a whole passage on your device, then read it in your own language • Reads text other apps miss, including vertical and rotated lines

ACCURATE BY DESIGN • Neural, context-aware word segmentation instead of greedy character matching • Pinyin that resolves polyphones from the sentence: 还 reads hái "still" or huán "to return," and Zimu knows which • A 120,000-entry dictionary with HSK level and part of speech on every entry • Simplified and traditional variants mapped together, with animated stroke order and audio

EVERYTHING IN YOUR LANGUAGE The whole dictionary is localized into nine languages, not just the interface: definitions, character and word explanations, 180,000+ example sentences, and grammar notes.

A NOTEBOOK THAT REMEMBERS FOR YOU • Save words and grammar as you read, with the source sentence kept alongside each one • Tag, organize, and review with modern FSRS spaced repetition • A focused drilling mode for when you want to push harder • iCloud keeps your notebook, flashcards, and review schedule in sync across iPhone and iPad

PRIVATE AND OFFLINE Dictionary, OCR, segmentation, pinyin, stroke order, translation, notebook, and flashcards all work without a network. Read and translate a menu on a plane, or a sign with no signal. Once your dictionary and language packs are downloaded, the only thing that uses the internet is iCloud sync, and your notebook stays in your private iCloud account. There's no sign-up, and Zimu never asks for your email.

SWITCHING FROM ANOTHER DICTIONARY APP? Zimu will feel familiar: tap to look up, a saveable word list, flashcards. The difference is that it's built around reading in the moment. Camera OCR is part of the app rather than an add-on, segmentation is neural rather than dictionary-greedy, pinyin is resolved in context, and the whole dictionary comes in your own language. You can bring your existing word list over by importing a standard export (.txt or .xml).

BEAUTIFUL, AND BUILT FOR iOS • A modern, native interface made for long reading sessions • Light and dark themes, from a calm Matcha to a bright Sakura

Zimu Pro unlocks deeper word insights, advanced grammar, every example sentence, unlimited saves, study stats, and every theme. Core reading, lookup, definitions, and flashcards are free.

Terms of Use (EULA): https://getzimu.app/terms