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Look up a character by the character itself, its pinyin or its English meaning.
Chinese characters · Look up
HanziLens: Chinese Lookup
Look up, write and remember. Meet a Chinese character you do not know? Draw it, or search by character, pinyin or English meaning. HanziLens shows its pronunciation, meanings and stroke order, lets you practise writing it and saves it for review.
- iPhone
- iPad
- Chinese and English interface
- No account needed
Scan to open the App Store on your phoneAn independent learning product from JS INSIGHTS LTD. HSK references are provided only as a study aid; the app is not an official HSK product and is not endorsed by an official examination provider.
What the app does
From an unknown character to one you can write.
Handwriting lookup
Draw a character you can see but cannot type, then pick it from the candidates.
Radicals and stroke counts
Browse by radical and stroke count when you know how a character is built.
Hear and watch
Play the pronunciation on demand and watch the stroke order animate, stroke by stroke.
Guided writing practice
Practise writing the character with guidance, with Chinese and English explanations and examples.
Save and review
Save useful characters and return to your history and collections later. More than 3,000 reference characters.
Who it is for
For learners at home, at school or on the move.
HanziLens is useful for beginners, students, adult learners and heritage learners growing up in multilingual families. It can help families explore characters together and connect spoken Chinese with written forms.
Free and optional
Free to use. Remove ads once if you prefer.
If you prefer an ad-free experience, you can permanently remove all advertising with a one-time in-app purchase. This is optional.
Free to use
Free download
- All core learning and lookup features
- No account or sign-up
- Advertising may be shown where permitted
- Privacy and advertising choices presented before ads are requested, where required
Remove Ads Forever
One-time purchase · £2.99 in the UK
- Removes all advertising permanently
- A one-time, non-consumable purchase
- Not a subscription; it never renews
- Restore it on compatible devices with the same Apple Account
The apps themselves are free. The final local price and currency are shown by the App Store. Apple processes the payment; JS Insights does not receive or store payment-card details.
Companion app
HanziQuest: Chinese Writing
Learn to write characters through animated stroke order, handwriting feedback and quest-style levels.
More for this app
Support and legal information
More from JS Insights
Support
Questions, corrections or feedback: email us with the app name and, where possible, a screenshot. We reply personally.