Differences

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--- syntax_v2 [2026/06/20 13:30] – [Traditional and simplified characters] kbaiko
+++ syntax_v2 [2026/08/29 19:10] (current) – [Technical details, and the use of {}] kbaiko
@@ Line 50: / Line 50: @@
 The Chinese word should consist of one or more Chinese characters, without any spaces in it. Both traditional and simplified forms should be provided, and the two must have the same length.
-For an official mapping between simplified and traditional characters, one can refer to the 通用规范汉字表. However, the 通用规范汉字表 is only a guideline - it does not cover every Chinese character, and we prioritize real-life usage over what the 通用规范汉字表 says.
+For an official mapping between simplified and traditional characters, one can refer to the 通用规范汉字表. Many print and online dictionaries also list both traditional and simplified forms of characters.
-In particular, the traditional characters usually represent Taiwanese Mandarin usage, while the simplified characters represent mainland usage. The 通用规范汉字表 does not cover Taiwanese Mandarin usage, which can lead to discrepancies between the 通用规范汉字表 and CC-CEDICT. For instance, the 通用规范汉字表 indicates the simplified character 艳 was derived from the traditional character 艷, with 豓 and 豔 as traditional variants. However, in actual Taiwanese Mandarin usage, 豔 is most commonly used - which is why our entries are
+CC-CEDICT prioritizes real-life usage over what the 通用规范汉字表 and various print dictionaries say. In particular, our convention is that the traditional characters represent Taiwanese Mandarin usage, while the simplified characters represent mainland China usage. The 通用规范汉字表 does not cover Taiwanese Mandarin usage, which leads to occasional discrepancies between the 通用规范汉字表 and CC-CEDICT. For instance, the 通用规范汉字表 indicates the simplified character 艳 was derived from the traditional character 艷, with 豓 and 豔 as traditional variants. However, in actual Taiwanese Mandarin usage, 豔 is most commonly used - which is why our entries are
 <code>
@@ Line 60: / Line 60: @@
 </code>
-For some more examples of how to parse the 通用规范汉字表 into CC-CEDICT entries, see https://cc-cedict.org/wiki/references#variant_of
+(For more information on the "variant of" syntax and examples of how to parse the 通用规范汉字表 into CC-CEDICT entries, see https://cc-cedict.org/wiki/references#variant_of)
-In rare cases, characters are simplified based on "word-level simplification", meaning, the entire word is taken into account when converting between simplified and traditional characters.
+Another discrepancy lies in 睾 - the 通用规范汉字表 indicates the traditional and simplified forms are the same, but in Taiwan, this character is most commonly written as 睪, which does not appear in the 通用规范汉字表 at all, while 睾 is still used but less common. Consequently our entries are
-    * 彷彿|仿佛[fang3fu2] - 彷 does not officially simplify to 仿
+<code>
-    * 份子|分子[fen4zi3] - 份 does not officially simplify to 分
+睪 睾 [[gao1]] /.../
-    * 座標|坐标[zuo4biao1] - 座 does not officially simplify to 坐
+睾 睾 [[gao1]] /variant of 睪|睾[gao1]/
+</code>
+For words with multiple characters, characters can be simplified one-by-one, for example 書畫 is simplified to 书画 by converting 書 to 书 and 畫 to 画. In a very small number of cases, we practice "word-level simplification", meaning, the entire word is taken into account when converting between simplified and traditional characters.
+    * 彷彿|仿佛[fang3fu2] - 彷 is not considered a traditional form of 仿
+    * 份子|分子[fen4zi3] - 份 is not considered a traditional form of 分
+    * 座標|坐标[zuo4biao1] - 座 is not considered a traditional form of 坐
 These entries introduce "invalid" traditional/simplified character pairs, but the traditional/simplified forms of the word represent how the word is usually written in Taiwan and the mainland.
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 When parsing the traditional and simplified fields, Hanzi and numbers are treated as individual sections, while consecutive English letters are grouped together into a single section. For example a hypothetical headword "甲abc123乙丙" would be parsed into 7 sections: 甲, abc, 1, 2, 3, 乙, 丙.
-The pinyin is first split by spaces and punctuation, and then parsed based on valid pinyin syllables. One way of writing pinyin for the hypothetical headword above could be "jia3 abc yi1-er4-san1 yi3bing3". Note there are many valid ways that the pinyin could be segmented, for example "jia3 abc yi1er4 san1yi3bing3" or "jia3-abc-yi1-er4-san1-yi3-bing3" (these may not make sense from an orthographic point of view, but will be parsed correctly by the CC-CEDICT website). The only requirement is that the "abc" is separated "yi1". Any of the above examples will be parsed into 7 pinyin sections.
+The pinyin is first split by spaces and punctuation, and then parsed based on valid pinyin syllables. One way of writing pinyin for the hypothetical headword above could be "jia3 abc yi1-er4-san1 yi3bing3". Note there are many valid ways that the pinyin could be segmented, for example "jia3 abc yi1er4 san1yi3bing3" or "jia3-abc-yi1-er4-san1-yi3-bing3" (these may not make sense from an orthographic point of view, but will be parsed correctly by the CC-CEDICT website). The only requirement is that "abc" is separated from "yi1". Any of the above examples will be parsed into 7 pinyin sections.
 It is a requirement that the number of parsed sections in the Hanzi matches the number of parsed sections in the pinyin. For the vast majority of entries, this does not pose a problem. Almost all Chinese characters are one syllable in length, and due to how the parsing logic works, numbers and English letters will be parsed correctly as long as the pinyin is segmented correctly. Problems arise in rare situations such as