A Chinese dictionary for AI assistants and developers

Connect it

The server address:

https://dengdeng.app/dictionary/mcp

It uses the Streamable HTTP transport with no authentication. Every tool only reads the dictionary.

• Claude (web and desktop): open Settings, then Connectors, and add a custom connector with the address above.
• ChatGPT: turn on developer mode in the Apps settings, then create an app with the address above and no authentication.
• Claude Code:

  claude mcp add --transport http dengdeng-dictionary https://dengdeng.app/dictionary/mcp

• Cursor (~/.cursor/mcp.json):

  {
    "mcpServers": {
      "dengdeng-dictionary": {
        "url": "https://dengdeng.app/dictionary/mcp"
      }
    }
  }

• VS Code (.vscode/mcp.json):

  {
    "servers": {
      "dengdeng-dictionary": {
        "type": "http",
        "url": "https://dengdeng.app/dictionary/mcp"
      }
    }
  }

Other clients that support remote MCP servers work the same way: give them the address.

Tools

Each call returns one entry, one page of search results or one page of a word list, with links to the word pages on this site.

look_up_word: Look up a Chinese word

Look up one Chinese word or character in the Dengdeng Chinese–English dictionary. Returns the simplified and traditional forms, tone-marked pinyin for each reading, the English meanings, the HSK 3.0 band, measure words, and, when the word has them, two example sentences with pinyin and English, an audio URL and a short cartoon. Also returns the URL of the word's dictionary page and links to its sections: the cartoon, stroke order, example sentences and, for some words, a slang, idiom or measure-word guide. Use it for questions such as “what does 加油 mean” or “how do you pronounce 银行”. The word must be written in Chinese characters; use search_dictionary for pinyin or English. It looks up dictionary entries only and does not translate sentences.

• word (string, required): One Chinese word or character in simplified or traditional characters, for example 你好 or 學習.

search_dictionary: Search the Chinese dictionary

Search the Dengdeng Chinese–English dictionary by pinyin (with or without tone marks, for example “xuexi” or “xué xí”), by English meaning (for example “library”), or by Chinese characters. Returns up to 10 matching words with pinyin, a short meaning, the HSK 3.0 band and the URL of each word page, plus the URL of the full results. Use look_up_word afterwards for the full entry of one result.

• query (string, required): Pinyin, English or Chinese characters, up to 100 characters.
• mode (all, pinyin, simplified, traditional, english): Limit the search to one field: pinyin, simplified, traditional or english. Use all (the default) when unsure.

hsk_word_list: HSK 3.0 word list

One page (100 words) of an HSK 3.0 vocabulary list (the 2021 standard, also called the new HSK), ordered by pinyin, with pinyin, a short English meaning and the word page URL for each word. Bands 1–6 are separate lists; 7-9 is the combined advanced band. Returns the number of pages, so ask for later pages with the page argument. To find the band of one word, use look_up_word or search_dictionary instead of scanning the lists.

• band (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7-9, required): The HSK 3.0 band: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7-9.
• page (integer): The page of the list, 100 words per page. The first page is 1.

get_embed_code: Get dictionary widget code

Get the HTML code to put a free Dengdeng dictionary widget on a website, for example a teacher's class page or a blog. Widgets: word_card (a word with pinyin, meanings, a sound button and a link to the word's cartoon when it has one), word_of_the_day (a new common word every day) and search_box (a dictionary search form). The code is an iframe plus a plain credit link; tell the user to paste both into an HTML or embed block. Returns the code, the frame URL and size, and the widgets page with instructions for WordPress and Google Sites.

• widget (word_card, word_of_the_day, search_box, required): Which widget to embed.
• word (string): The Chinese word for word_card, for example 谢谢. Not used by word_of_the_day and search_box.

Example

Look up 加油 with a plain HTTP request:

curl -s https://dengdeng.app/dictionary/mcp \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H 'Accept: application/json, text/event-stream' \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"look_up_word","arguments":{"word":"加油"}}}'

The result has the entry as structuredContent, and the same JSON as text for clients that read only text:

{
  "found": true,
  "word": "加油",
  "pinyin": "jiā yóu",
  "meanings": [
    "to add oil; to top up with gas; to refuel",
    "to accelerate; to step on the gas",
    "(fig.) to make an extra effort; to cheer sb on"
  ],
  "readings": [
    {
      "pinyin": "jiā yóu",
      "meanings": [
        "to add oil; to top up with gas; to refuel",
        "to accelerate; to step on the gas",
        "(fig.) to make an extra effort; to cheer sb on"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "hsk": {
    "hsk3_band": "2"
  },
  "frequency_rank": 717,
  "examples": [
    {
      "chinese": "虽然明天好像会下雨，但我会加油的。",
      "pinyin": "suī rán míng tiān hǎo xiàng huì xià yǔ dàn wǒ huì jiā yóu de",
      "english": "It looks like rain tomorrow, but I'll try my best.",
      "credit": "Tatoeba sentences https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/8682684 (crescat) and https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/328947 (fcbond), CC BY 2.0 FR; Pinyin added or corrected"
    },
    {
      "chinese": "我的姊姊为一个年轻的相扑力士加油。",
      "pinyin": "wǒ de zǐ zǐ wèi yí gè nián qīng de xiāng pū lì shì jiā yóu",
      "english": "My sister is cheering for a young Sumo wrestler.",
      "credit": "Tatoeba sentences https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/402923 (Rebeca) and https://tatoeba.org/en/sentences/show/11272676 (Aphima), CC BY 2.0 FR; Simplified Chinese conversion; Pinyin added or corrected"
    }
  ],
  "audio_url": "https://dengdeng.app/dictionary/audio/f79aad4f331220ce4ab813ee4a98a8d02c128f697d194a6d76f0cfc94ca69158.mp3",
  "cartoon": {
    "title": "Cheering for a stranger",
    "url": "https://dengdeng.app/dictionary/word/%E5%8A%A0%E6%B2%B9/#video"
  },
  "url": "https://dengdeng.app/dictionary/word/%E5%8A%A0%E6%B2%B9/",
  "links": [
    {
      "label": "Full entry: audio, all readings and related words",
      "url": "https://dengdeng.app/dictionary/word/%E5%8A%A0%E6%B2%B9/"
    },
    {
      "label": "Watch the short cartoon that uses the word",
      "url": "https://dengdeng.app/dictionary/word/%E5%8A%A0%E6%B2%B9/#video"
    },
    {
      "label": "Stroke order: how to write each character",
      "url": "https://dengdeng.app/dictionary/word/%E5%8A%A0%E6%B2%B9/#handwriting"
    },
    {
      "label": "Example sentences with pinyin and English",
      "url": "https://dengdeng.app/dictionary/word/%E5%8A%A0%E6%B2%B9/#examples"
    },
    {
      "label": "Slang guide: what 加油 means",
      "url": "https://dengdeng.app/dictionary/slang/jiayou/"
    }
  ],
  "source": "Definitions: CC-CEDICT, CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)"
}

Widgets in action

Ask an assistant for a widget, and get_embed_code returns code like this. This is the live word card for 加油:

<iframe src="https://dengdeng.app/dictionary/embed/word/%E5%8A%A0%E6%B2%B9/" title="加油 (jiā yóu) in the Dengdeng Chinese Dictionary" width="480" height="260" style="width:100%;max-width:480px;border:0" loading="lazy"></iframe>
<p><a href="https://dengdeng.app/dictionary/word/%E5%8A%A0%E6%B2%B9/">加油 (jiā yóu) – Dengdeng Chinese Dictionary</a></p>

The widgets page also has the word of the day and the search box, and makes the code for any word.

Limits and credits

• Each IP address can make 300 calls a minute, and 120 of them can be searches. Assistants call from shared servers, so a busy minute can return HTTP 429 or a “too many searches” result; try again a minute later.
• The server is for lookups, not for copying the dictionary. To use all of the data, download the sources from Sources & licenses.
• Definitions come from CC-CEDICT under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences from Tatoeba carry their own credit in each result. Keep these credits when you show the data.
• No tool translates or annotates your own text. The tools return dictionary entries only.

More ways to use the dictionary

• Widgets: a word card, a word of the day and a search box for any website, plus oEmbed at https://dengdeng.app/dictionary/oembed?url=<word page URL>.
• Word pages: https://dengdeng.app/dictionary/word/<word>/, for example 加油. Traditional spellings redirect to the simplified page.
• A guide for language models: llms.txt.

Privacy

The assistant sends the server only the word, the search or the list page it needs. We use it to answer and don’t store it, and our logs keep the tool name but not the query. See the Dengdeng privacy policy. Questions: hello@dengdeng.app.