YouDao is the Merriam-Websters of Chinese dictionaries. While it may be hard to use for beginners and intermediate speakers, it’s perfect for advanced Chinese learners. Keep in mind that YouDao was made for Chinese users.
YouDao’s main function is similar to Google Translate, allowing users to look up Chinese phrases and their meanings in English. This works both ways; users can type in English phrases and find their meanings in Chinese as well.
If you type a Chinese word, YouDao also includes the Chinese definition for that word, very similar to Dictionary.com. It also includes example sentences in both English and Chinese.
YouDao has a powerful English-to-Chinese translation tool, allowing you to translate full sentences accurately. This is great for Chinese learners seeking to expand their vocabulary with more advanced phrases.
Unfortunately this tool does not work the other way around, as YouDao does not have an Chinese-to-English translation tool for sentences. However, as previously mentioned, single English words and phrases can be translated into Chinese via the Dictionary tool.
Besides English-to-Chinese, YouDao also offers Chinese-to-Japanese, Chinese-to-Korean, and Chinese-to-French dictionaries.