Chinese words separator chrome extension

What is Chinese words separator?

Chinese words separator is a text reader extension for chrome. it's a free extension , it has 1,000+ active users since released its first version, it earns an average rating of 4.87 from 15 rated user, last update is 397 days ago.

What’s new in version 8.24.84.1360?

                Words separator for dictionary and page

Annotate pinyin, zhuyin/bopomofo, tone, HSK, color, space to Chinese text

Sentence mining

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

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 contribute English to Chinese words mapping, contribute to CedPane's PD-English-Definitions.txt:
https://github.com/ssb22/CedPane/blob/master/PD-English-Definitions.txt


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/            

How to install Chinese words separator?

You could download the latest version crx file or older version files and install it.

Preview of Chinese words separator

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Reviews of chinese words separator:

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Kamil February 17th, 2023

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.

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Ricardo Yap August 25th, 2022

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.

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Cong Nguyen July 20th, 2022

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.

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