# Zhongwen: The Popular Chinese Learning Tool

> Official Firefox port of the Zhongwen Chrome extension (http://github.com/cschiller/zhongwen). Translate Chinese characters by hovering over them with the mouse. Includes internal word list, links to Chinese Grammar Wiki, tone colors, and more.

Canonical page: [https://chrome-stats.com/d/zhongwen](https://chrome-stats.com/d/zhongwen)

## Overview

- **ID:** `zhongwen`
- **Platform:** Firefox
- **Type:** Firefox add-on
- **Status:** Available
- **Publisher:** Christian Schiller
- **Category:** language-support
- **Daily users:** 7,164
- **Weekly downloads:** 163
- **Rating:** 4.72 / 5 (43 ratings)
- **Version:** 5.16.0
- **Last updated:** 2025-04-27
- **First published:** 2019-03-02
- **Size:** 5.19 MB
- **Data as of:** 2026-09-09
- **Store listing:** [Firefox Add-ons Store](https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/zhongwen/)
- **Website:** [https://github.com/cschiller/zhongwen/issues](https://github.com/cschiller/zhongwen/issues)

## Description

Zhongwen is a powerful Firefox extension designed to enhance your Chinese language learning experience. By hovering over Chinese characters on any webpage, you instantly get translations from a comprehensive dictionary, including both simplified and traditional characters. It displays Hanyu Pinyin with colorful tone indicators to help reinforce pronunciation and tone recognition. 

The extension features an internal word list to save vocabulary for later study, supports exporting to Anki and Skritter, and provides direct links to the Chinese Grammar Wiki for deeper understanding. Keyboard navigation enables quick lookup of individual characters or words without using the mouse. Additional functionalities include quick access to multiple online dictionaries and customizable settings to tailor your learning preferences. Zhongwen is an all-in-one tool for learners seeking seamless, interactive Chinese reading and study.

## Rankings

- #944 — Overall
- #34 — Language Support
- #10 — learn
- #24 — tool
- #27 — earn
- #36 — cheese

## Permissions and access

### Permissions

- `contextMenus`
- `tabs`

### Content script matches

- `<all_urls>`

## Safety

- **Risk impact:** High risk impact
- **Risk likelihood:** Low risk likelihood

### Analysis details

- Grants access to browser tabs, which can be used to track user browsing habits and history, presenting a privacy concern.
- This extension has low user count. Unpopular extensions may not be stable or safe.

> Some risk analysis details are omitted from this free response. [Upgrade to view the full analysis](https://chrome-stats.com/pricing).

## Review summary

Users overwhelmingly praise Zhongwen as an essential, time-saving Chinese learning tool with instant hover lookups and strong long-term reliability. The main consistent problems reported are a missing toolbar icon and cases where the extension fails to activate after install or updates, making it unusable for some people.

### Pros

- Highly useful and regarded as essential for Chinese learners (often compared to Pleco).
- Instant character lookup/hover translations that make reading Chinese much easier.
- Time-saving and effective — helps users tackle more advanced materials.
- Reliable and long-term favorite; many users reinstall it on new devices.

### Cons

- Missing toolbar icon/no add-on logo — users cannot find or enable it in the toolbar.
- Extension sometimes fails to activate or work after installation or updates, rendering it unusable.

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Source: [Chrome-Stats](https://chrome-stats.com/d/zhongwen)