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About 粵語辭叢

Open-sourced Yue Dictionary Collection Platform - an open Cantonese dictionary platform

Mission

粵語辭叢 is building a practical, modern Cantonese / Yue / Jyut dictionary platform that helps preserve and share Cantonese through contemporary technology.

By bringing together Cantonese dictionaries from multiple sources, we provide learners, researchers, and language enthusiasts with one convenient and comprehensive lookup tool.

Content licensing

The dictionaries collected on this platform broadly fall into two groups, each with its own licensing terms and usage restrictions:

Published dictionaries

Examples include books such as 《實用廣州話分類詞典》 (Mak Wan and Tam Bou-wan, Guangdong People's Publishing House, 1997) and 《廣州話俗語詞典》 (Au Yeung Kok-a, Chow Mou-kei, and Yiu Bing-choi, Guangdong People's Publishing House, 2010).

Copyright status

These dictionary contents are protected by the Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China. The data comes from publicly shared scanned resources found online.

Content disclaimer

The original book authors are responsible for the entry content. This platform's data was produced through OCR at scale, so recognition or formatting errors may remain. If you find a problem, please open a GitHub issue: GitHub Issue

Current use

  • Technical prototyping and demos
  • Academic research and discussion
  • Cantonese digital tooling development

Restrictions

  • Not for commercial use
  • No redistribution or relicensing
  • Not for formal publication or product release

We encourage users to support the original sources. If you need to use these dictionary contents formally, please buy the original publication or contact the publisher for permission.

Community dictionaries

These dictionaries are written and maintained by open communities under open licenses.

Content disclaimer: entries in community dictionaries are written and maintained by their respective editorial communities. This site only aggregates and displays the content, and does not guarantee its accuracy, completeness, or suitability. If you have questions about a specific entry, please visit the source dictionary site or contact its editors directly.

words.hk - 59,019 entries

A Hong Kong Cantonese community dictionary with everyday expressions, slang, and modern vocabulary, plus bilingual Cantonese-English definitions.

License

Non-Commercial Open Data License 1.0(Non-Commercial Open Data License)

Allowed uses
  • Non-commercial use, copying, editing, and publishing
  • Attribution and copyright notices must be retained
Commercial use

Separate authorization is required (small individual businesses under 3x the regional median income may be exempt).

Copyright holder: Hong Kong Lexicography Ltd.

Wiktionary - 102,195 entries

Cantonese entries from Wiktionary, collaboratively written by volunteers around the world.

License

CC BY-SA 4.0(Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International)

Allowed uses
  • Commercial use: allowed
  • Copying and distribution: freely allowed
  • Modification and remixing: you may adapt, transform, or build on this material
Conditions
  • Attribution: you must provide appropriate credit and link to the license
  • Share alike: if you modify the work, you must distribute it under the same license

Copyright holder: Wikimedia Foundation & Wiktionary contributors

Community-created word lists

Original word lists compiled and contributed by dialect enthusiasts, learners, researchers, and other individuals.

Default license

Published under the following license: CC BY-NC 4.0

Allowed uses

  • Copying and sharing: free to copy and distribute
  • Adaptation: free to modify and build on the content
  • Non-commercial only: limited to personal study, research, and other non-profit uses

Conditions

  • Attribution: appropriate credit and a link to the license are required
  • Mark changes: if you modify the content, you must describe the changes
  • Non-commercial: the content may not be used commercially

Attribution example:
陳明. (2025). 四邑話日常用語詞表. 粵語辭叢 (jyutjyu.com)

Qinzhou Jyutping - 12,657 entries

The headwords and pronunciations from 《欽州白話》, covering Qinzhou Yue vocabulary and Jyutping. Originally compiled by Lai Joengzit and other enthusiasts, published in 2020.

Default license

GPL-3.0(GNU General Public License 3.0)

Allowed uses
  • Commercial use: allowed
  • Copying and distribution: freely allowed
  • Modification and remixing: you may modify, transform, or build on this work
Conditions
  • Retain copyright notice: the original copyright notice and license must remain
  • Share alike: modified versions must be distributed under the same GPL-3.0 license

Copyright holder: Lai Joengzit et al. Data source: https://github.com/LaiJoengzit/hamzau_jyutping

Public web dictionaries (license unclear)

The following dictionaries are publicly accessible online but do not state a specific license. Please cite the source and respect the original author when using or redistributing them.

Taishanese English Dictionary - 42,499 entries

A Taishanese-English web dictionary with headwords, phrases, and examples, plus Taishanese romanization, Hanyu Pinyin, and English definitions.

License status

Data source: a publicly available web dictionary. Copyright © 2005-2024 Gene M. Chin. No explicit license is stated.

Source: https://www.chinfamilytree.com/hed/index.htm · Please cite the source and respect the original author when using or redistributing it.

Rights notice and contact

We respect intellectual property and are committed to preserving and passing on Cantonese culture within an appropriate legal framework.

If you are a rights holder and have questions about any content collected on this platform, or would like us to revise or remove content, please contact us through the following channels:

We commit to responding within 7 business days after receiving a reasonable request.

Tech stack

Frontend

  • Vue 3 + Nuxt 3
  • TypeScript
  • Tailwind CSS

Data processing

  • Node.js
  • CSV parsing and validation
  • OpenCC traditional/simplified conversion

Contribute

This is an open-source project, and we welcome contributions in many forms.