KoiSpeak is an English ⇄ Chinese dictionary and learning platform for English speakers learning Chinese. Our goal is to make lookup fast, clear, and pleasant: type Chinese or pinyin and immediately see the meaning, reading, and examples in a clean, uncluttered interface.
What does "KoiSpeak" mean?
The name KoiSpeak comes from 毛笔 (máo bǐ), the Chinese writing brush, the instrument of Chinese writing and calligraphy for thousands of years. We chose it because KoiSpeak is likewise a tool for reading, writing, and finding your way into Chinese, in an ink-wash spirit: black ink, hairline strokes, a calm and uncluttered interface. Our mascot, the cat Mao Bi, puns on 毛笔 (brush) and 猫 (māo, cat), a reminder that learning can be both serious and light.
The dictionary
You can search in both directions, Chinese → English and English → Chinese. The search box matches Chinese characters (both Simplified and Traditional) and pinyin in every form, with diacritics (nǐ hǎo), numbered (ni3 hao3), or toneless (ni hao). Each entry shows tone-colored pinyin, stroke order, example sentences, and character etymology.
Study tools
Beyond lookup, KoiSpeak gives you several tools to study more effectively:
- OCR: snap or upload a photo of Chinese text and KoiSpeak recognizes the characters for you using the scan tool. The image is uploaded securely to KoiSpeak's storage and recognized automatically; guests' images are deleted right after recognition, and scan history is a Pro feature.
- Handwriting: draw Chinese characters stroke by stroke at handwriting input to look up characters you cannot yet read.
- Reading mode: paste a passage of Chinese text for assisted reading with inline lookup.
- Notebook and Review: save the words you meet, then review them with FSRS-based spaced repetition.
Pro
KoiSpeak is free for everyday lookup. The Pro plan unlocks higher limits on the advanced features and removes ads. Payments are handled by a payment provider acting as our Merchant of Record, which takes care of tax and invoicing on our behalf.
See the pricing page for details, or find answers to common questions on the FAQ page.